


The Dead Potions Master

by faewm



Category: Harry Potter - J. K. Rowling, NCIS
Genre: Albus Dumbledore Bashing, Gen, Gory Crime Scene, Not for Snape lovers, just general fun
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-08-12
Updated: 2018-08-16
Packaged: 2019-06-26 06:52:46
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Major Character Death
Chapters: 4
Words: 24,671
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/15658029
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/faewm/pseuds/faewm
Summary: Someone killed Snape and Amelia is stumped, so she calls in the new team from America to help figure it out. Some bashing. Set in Harry's first year, pre NCIS series.





	1. The Mayhem

**Author's Note:**

> Thanks to my betas, alix33, darrelldeam and LadyLini, for all their help in making these easier to read for you my readers, all mistakes are still my own. If you see any plotholes or mistakes, feel free to point them out. 
> 
> This is a rewrite of my story Who Shot Snape, under Fairywm. I gave it a new title and summary, corrected some of the comma errors (though there may still be some, commas are not my friend), made the chapters longer (making less of them), added a few scenes, and reconstructed some of the paragraphs and sentences. Basically it is the same story; it just flows better, hopefully.
> 
> I don't own Harry Potter. That pleasure belongs to the very rich and famous J.K. Rowling and the people she pays to have it make money for her. I also don't own NCIS. That pleasure belongs to Donald Bellisario and his co-producers and writers. this will be for the whole fic.

**_September 13, 1991, around 7 p.m._ ** **_Potion Master’s Office, Hogwarts_ **

Madam Amelia Susan Bones, the celebrated Head of the Department of Magical Law Enforcement and aunt to Susan Bones, looked at the dead body of Potions Master Severus Tobias Snape in confusion. There was a hole in his forehead, and the back of his head didn't exist. Where there should be a scalp, there was nothing but a gory mess of bone, black hair and brain matter. She knew of no spell that could do that, and every diagnostic spell she used came back with no magical residue. She was stumped. After about an hour of trying to find out what killed the Potions Master, she gave up, summoned her Patronus, and called in her new WCIS team.

The Headmaster, Dumbledore, looked on pensively. _This cannot be happening,_ he thought. _Severus was supposed to keep the students from learning too much and keep the Muggle-born and -raised from graduating with honors in Potions. It will not do to have them in positions in the Ministry. Tradition demands that all higher positions be held by pure-bloods. It is where the money is. That cannot change. If we break from tradition, the society as we know it will crumble and I will lose power._ He sighed while thinking that he should be the only half-blood to lead the pure-bloods to the right path. It is for the Greater Good after all.

His thoughts continued as he watched Amelia, _He was also vital in keeping Harry humble. What am I going to do now? The whole game has changed. I need to think of someone who can be manipulated enough to be my pawn. Alas, I know of no one. This will require some deep thinking on my part. Now if I could only get these Ministry workers out of my castle…_ His thoughts were laced with many ideas, but he discarded most of them. All of his plans were now ruined.

Unaware of Dumbledore's less than light thoughts, Amelia waited for her team to arrive at the castle. She was still trying to figure out what had happened. In all of her years on the force, she had never come across something like this. She regretted that Alastor ‘Mad-Eye’ Moody had retired; he would know what to do. She sighed and turned to the Headmaster.

"Dumbledore," she said, pulling him from his thoughts, "do you have any idea who might have done this?"

"Alas, Amelia, poor Severus had many enemies. However, I do not know of any of them that could have been in the castle. The wards gave no sign of dark magic being used. I was only alerted that an unauthorized Floo call came from this room and came to see who would do such a thing," Dumbledore said with a very sad look and a slight shake of his head. "I truly believe that you will not find anyone in this school that could cast such a dark spell, for any spell that could do such damage would require more skill than any of my students possess, and I trust my staff completely," he said with complete confidence. "I will, of course, be ready to help you in any way I can, should you need me. Shall I see you to the gates?" he asked with a wave of his hand toward the door, expecting her to follow along. After all, everyone else did.

"Dumbledore, have you gone senile?" Amelia snapped. "When Marcus Flint Flooed my office to report this crime, I came immediately. I will have to have my team question everyone in this castle until they find the culprit. I highly doubt this was outside work. I’m waiting for my team of investigators to get here. I need you to assemble everyone—and I do mean everyone—in the Great Hall so that we can try to understand what the hell happened here. You will have to have the staff get a list of guardians so that my team can call them when they need to," she said sternly. She hated it when Dumbledore tried to curtail her of doing her job.

"Of course, my dear," Dumbledore said in his placating grandfather tone, making Amelia's teeth gnash. "I will call everyone in the morning. The children are in their common rooms now and will be soon asleep. Surely, you do not wish to disturb them?" he said, trying to buy some time so he could find the person who had foiled his plans. Then, he could eliminate their memory and get the whole thing dismissed as unsolvable. He too had never seen magic such as this, and he could not let anyone who could perform it to remember and use it against him. No, it was for the greater good that he attend to this himself, without the interference of the Ministry.

"I don't think you understand, Headmaster," Amelia said firmly, looking him directly in the eye. "Once I am at the scene of a crime, I must do everything in my power to solve it. And that means you will call all students and staff to the Great Hall tonight and they will stay there until we are done questioning everybody. And you," she poked her finger in his direction, "will not interfere or talk to anyone until we are done."

Dumbledore, however, did not leave the room; he was trying to find a way to get this interfering woman out of his castle. Didn't she understand that his word was law?

Just then, Amelia’s temporary American Muggle-born team came into the room. They had been brought over by her, because there were very few qualified British citizens — mostly due to the dead man on the floor— making the cut to be an Auror. This was much to the Minister Fudge's displeasure; he hated that she could go over his head to staff her department. The fact that this team was still being paid by the America Wizard Government also helped. This was an experimental training exercise. She had seen them at work while she had been on vacation in the United States and had wanted them to train her Aurors so that if war broke out again they wouldn’t be so unprepared.

Special Auror Leroy Jethro Gibbs was the head of the team. This would be their first case on British soil. There was nothing but glowing reports of the team and, from what Amelia was told by their director, they were the best, though she was told that Gibbs didn’t play well with authority figures. She hadn’t had a problem so far, so she wasn’t too worried. With him were his two deputies, Auror Anthony 'Tony' DiNozzo and Trainee Auror Caitlin 'Kate' Todd, as well as his Medical Examiner, Healer Donald 'Ducky' Mallard. They must have left Abigail 'Abby' Sciuto in her labs.

"What have you got for me, Amelia?" Gibbs asked, looking around the room and flipping open his Muggle notebook, ignoring the poorly dressed man lurking around in the room, trying to get his attention. _I’ll never understand why these British still wear robes,_ he thought, _they are far too cumbersome. Look at my guys; they’re in comfortable Muggle clothing._ He looked at the old man’s colorful and rich robes in disgust.

Ducky went straight to the body and waved his wand in an intricate manner. Despite the fact that he knew no spell had done this, it was protocol.

"The deceased is Professor Severus Snape. He was the Potion’s Master of this school and supposedly reformed spy," Amelia stated, going over the facts as she knew them. "The Floo call came in at 6:12 p.m., which is when a young wizard, Marcus Flint, noticed the body. Young Flint was supposed to have detention with Professor Snape. When he arrived, he saw the body and called me right away.

"I arrived here to find Headmaster Dumbledore," she waved toward the man Gibbs had noticed earlier, “telling Mr. Flint to go to his common room and forget he ever saw the body. He was just about to raise his wand to Mr. Flint's retreating back. I, of course, dissuaded him of that notion," she said, glaring at the serene looking Headmaster. "I then examined the body but could find no residue of any spell. Then, I called you in."

"Boss," Tony said, getting their attention, "that is not from a spell, it looks like a gunshot wound to me, probably a nine-millimeter hollow point. So we are probably looking for a Muggle-born or half-blood."

Gibbs smacked Tony upside the head. "Never disregard anyone until the whole scene is processed. That's a rookie mistake. There are some pure-bloods that know of the Muggle world. Think, DiNozzo. That is what we pay you for."

"Sorry, Boss," Tony said, rubbing his head. He went back to wandering around the room trying to figure out who had been there during the past few hours.

Gibbs turned to his medical examiner. "What do you have for me, Ducky?"

"Well, Jethro” said Ducky “as far as I can tell the poor young man was shot in the front of the head at point blank range, around one to two hours ago. I will not be sure of what type of gun it was until we find the bullet. Judging from the wound, you are looking for someone who carries a lot of hate. Also, from the trajectory, it must have been either a small student or someone sitting in that chair," the Healer said thoughtfully, indicating the chair in front of the body. "I will need to get my readings to Abigail. She will know more. While you are securing the scene, I will get this young man to the lab and see what I can find. It reminds me of the time…” he started to reminisce when Gibbs cut him off.

"Okay, Ducky, you get him to the lab and give me a time of death," Gibbs said, turning back to Amelia. "We're gonna need to seal off this room. Do you know if the Headmaster touched anything before you arrived?" He ignored the huffing of the old man, not caring one bit if he was affronted.

"According to him, he had only just arrived when I got here,” Amelia answered.

"Headmaster, I'm going to need you to get all your staff and students together," Gibbs said, repeating what Amelia had told Dumbledore earlier. "Trainee Todd," he said to the nervous young lady who had been examining the Floo, "I need you to escort the Headmaster to the Great Hall and wait for me to get there. Have him call everyone there, and try to keep the students seated. Also, make sure that the staff doesn’t talk to the students. Use a Silencing Charm if you have to. Make sure it is Auror strength," he snapped out his orders.

Kate took the protesting man’s arm and drew him from the room firmly. Gibbs turned back to Amelia. "Why don't you go with Ducky?” he asked, causing Ducky to smile disarmingly and causing Amelia to roll her eyes; that man was such a flirt. "We've got it from here. Give us a week, and I'll send you a report. I’m going to be sending for some of your men, so you might want to get them to the Ministry to await the order. I’m going to need about a dozen or so to help with the interrogations. Make sure they know how to question kids."

It was a good thing that, as the Head of the Department of Magical Law Enforcement, she could make a Portkey to get out of any wards, including Hogwarts, much to the headmaster's displeasure. She so liked making that man frown. Amelia gave a nod and created a Portkey. She then had an amused Ducky grab the robes of the body, which had had a body binding curse laid on it, preventing it from moving. They then touched the Portkey and were off.

"Boss," Tony said, coming to Gibbs's side, "whoever did this knew what they were doing. The whole room is clean. Not a bullet, hair or speck of skin anywhere, except for that Flint kid’s and the headmaster’s. I do detect an overlaying spell, probably for the clean-up."

Gibbs sighed. This was going to be a long night.

**_Later that night at 9 pm_ **

After collecting what they could find, the two men sealed the office and made their way up to the Great Hall from the dungeon where the crime had taken place. As they entered, they noticed that there was complete silence. Todd must have had to cast the Silencing Charm. He gave her a nod in acknowledgement and went to the front of the hall. He cast the Sonorus Charm upon himself and faced the students.

"We," he said, waving between himself and the two Aurors, "are part of the Wizard Criminal Investigative Service, which means that we are here to investigate a crime. Sometime, around 6 p.m., your Potions Master was murdered."

At first, there were stunned faces in the student body, then, Gibbs watched in shock as a large part of the kids stood up and started silently cheering. They were hugging each other and some were crying. There was even some dancing in the aisles.

_Yep, couldn't be easy. I wonder what that man did to earn such disrespect,_ Gibbs thought, still stunned at the emotions shown by the children. He looked to the Staff Table and they didn’t seem surprised to hear that one of their own was killed in cold blood. He turned to his team when he heard them groan and waited for the students to calm down. When it didn't stop after a few minutes, he sent some bangs from his wand into the air to get their attention; he then motioned for them to sit.

"As I was saying, a man has been murdered. This is a crime and not a reason to rejoice, no matter what your feelings on the matter are. We will be calling your parents in and questioning all of you until we find the culprit." With that, Gibbs cancelled the Sonorus Charm and turned to the staff.

"I need a list of all your students and their guardians. I also need to know who has had detention with Professor Snape in the last week. I suggest you get those that are waiting some food and beverages. You might have to set up cots and port-a-potties. No one is leaving this room until we've talked to everybody." He turned to his team. "Trainee Todd, I want you to find Jen and give her the note I'm about to give you and get a search warrant for this whole castle, staff quarters included," he said, ignoring the shocked and betrayed looks coming from the staff table.

Jennifer 'Jen' Gleason was an attorney they had brought with them to make sure they didn't step on too many toes, as she specialized in British law.

"When you have the warrant," Gibbs continued, "gather a team of Aurors, which should be standing by, and bring them here. We're looking for a Muggle firearm. If the idiot pure-bloods don't know what one looks like, draw a damn picture. If the Minister gives you a hard time, go to Madam Bones and let her and Jen handle it.”

Every member of the staff was glaring at him, but he didn't care; he had the authority to do what he needed to solve a crime and from the reactions to his announcement everyone in this castle was a suspect.

“You’ve got it, Auror Gibbs," Trainee Kate said. She waited patiently for Gibbs to write the note, then took it and left the hall so that she could get outside the wards, where she could Apparate to the Ministry. She was still a little nervous. This was her first case, and she had heard what a tight-ass Gibbs was, but he seemed to look out for his team and she wanted to be a part of that.

Once Trainee Todd had left, Gibbs hit the doors to the hall with a locking charm. Only other Aurors were able to leave the Hall.

“So, what do we do now, Boss? From the look of things, everyone in this castle is a suspect. Did you see the way the kids celebrated?” DiNozzo asked, then shied away as Gibbs gave him his ‘did you just ask that?’ look.

“We’re going to have to separate them by age. We’ll talk to anyone over seventeen first and get alibis. Anyone who has a solid alibi can go back to their dorm, after the team has searched them. Until then have them sit tight. Anyone that is a suspect will have to go to a separate room until we can get them to the WCIS building for further questioning. I’m not letting anyone mess with the suspects. You make sure the team takes them to our building, not the Ministry,” Gibbs said, looking around the Great Hall. He had never seen such a spectacle over a murder; almost all these kids looked like they were happy Snape was gone. He shot another glance at the teachers’ table and didn’t see anyone sad there either.

Before the WCIS had been sent to the United Kingdom, the American government had sent a survey team over and concluded that the Ministry building could not be used for what this team was capable of. Abby, his computer geek, needed her computer and diagnostic machines. Ducky also needed electronics so he could run tests and do autopsies. There was no electricity in the Ministry building, so the bosses had rented a building close to St. Mungo’s.

Gibbs then turned back to the main area, cast another Sonorus and said to the students, “I need everyone to stand up.” Most of them did, but some of the older students just looked at him with that ‘You can’t tell me what to do’ expression on their faces. He scowled at them. He hated working with teenagers; it was always a fight to get them to listen. “You either stand up now or when my crew gets here you will be taken to the WCIS and questioned there.” The rest of them stood grudgingly. “Okay, now everyone move to the side or back of the room.” He waited for them to comply. When they had gotten organized he said, “Everyone over eighteen, sit at the front of the table with the green banners. Seventeen year olds sit next to them and so on, until I have the youngest sitting at the front of the red bannered table.”

The kids shuffled around for a few minutes, pushing each other and generally doing what kids do. Gibbs just continued to glare. After they were all organized, he turned back to the head table and asked, “Who is in charge below the Headmaster?” Again he ignored the annoying man. He had been warned that Dumbledore would try to interfere if he ever needed to be at the castle. But the man would soon learn that no one could tell Gibbs how to do his job or he would wind up in a cell just like anyone else.

A stern looking older lady stood and glared at him with pursed lips. He waved his wand and canceled the silencing charm. “I am Professor McGonagall, the Deputy Headmistress, and I would like to know just what you think you are doing. You can’t just come in here and order us around. These children should be going to bed, not sitting here while you do… whatever it is you are going to do.”

“Lady, there has been a murder. I can do whatever the hell I want,” Gibbs snapped back. “And you’ll do as your told or you’ll wind up in a cell until I damn well feel like letting you out. Now, I need you to start calling parents. Start with the older students’ parents first and work your way down. Anyone who doesn’t comply will have an Auror knocking on their door. They can then come to the WCIS and explain why they don’t want to help their child.” He turned to his second in command. “DiNozzo, go and check out that room over there, and see if it’s something we can secure and use for the interrogations,” he said, pointing to the ante-chamber. “If not, find something else close by.”

“Sure thing, Boss. Do you want to be able to set up a recorder?” the other man asked.

“I don’t know if the castle will let us. The magic is pretty strong here, but if you can get it to work, then, yeah, set it up,” Gibbs said thoughtfully, feeling the great amount of magic in the air.

DiNozzo headed off toward the indicated room and Gibbs turned to the Staff Table and glared at McGonagall. “Why are you still here?”

“I need the Headmaster’s Floo to make outside calls,” she said, still looking very unhappy. “You have not released him. He needs to unlock the Floo so that I can use it.” She waved her hand toward Dumbledore, who was still trying to undo the silencing charm. All Floos needed the Headmaster’s approval to make outgoing calls. It was inconvenient, but Dumbledore said it was for security reasons. It was a good thing he made sure everyone knew how to do a messaging Patronus. It was too bad that she couldn’t use this to get the parents here, but she knew that she would need to talk to them face to face so she could explain what was going on.

This however was a clue, _How did that Flint kid call Amelia?_

Gibbs didn’t want that man out of his sight if he could help it. He didn’t trust that calculating look in the old man’s eyes. He sighed. “I guess we’ll be here a little longer then. When my crew gets back, I’ll escort you myself. I don’t want anyone wandering the castle alone until we’ve done our search. So just sit tight for now.” He didn’t know the layout of the building, so he hadn’t realized that there was not a closer Floo. While he didn’t want the staff wandering around, he had thought that there was a Floo in this room; this was a school, after all. There should be a Floo in all the major rooms for emergencies.

DiNozzo came back. “It looks good, Boss. There are no windows, and it’s big enough that a few tables can be set up. You were right though; no recorder is going to work in there. What do you want to do?”

“See if you can get Abby to send some mirrors. We can turn them on and she can record from the Lab. Tell her to grab some techs to help her set it up,” Gibbs ordered. It wasn’t a great way to do this, but it would hold up in court. “Let her know that we’re going to be talking to a lot of kids and parents. Tell her I’ll stop at a One Stop when I’m done here and get her a Caf-Pow.” It had been hard to find a store that actually served the highly caffeinated drink. It was not native to Britain, but it was starting to sell. Hopefully, it would soon be in other stores, because there weren't any One Stops close to their headquarters, and it was quite a drive to find one, however, if it made Abby happy, he would.

“You want me to grab one? You know how Abby gets when she doesn’t have her caffeine,” Tony said as he checked his coat to make sure he had enough money to do so.

“Yeah, you might as well,” Gibbs said. “I don’t know how long we’ll be, find me some coffee too. Also, check with Ducky, and see if he knows what kind of gun we’re looking for.”

“You got it, Boss.” And, with a mock salute, he left.

Some of the staff were fidgeting, not at all happy that they were still under the silencing charm. Gibbs waved his wand and released them. “I’m going to be talking to you first. I don’t want you talking to each other. If you do, I will put the charm back on. We’re going to set that room over there with four tables. When we’re done talking to you you’re going to be sitting with my team and me, as well as the parents, while we get everyone’s alibis. Anyone who doesn’t have an alibi will be held in another room until we can take you to the WCIS building for further questioning,” Gibbs said, thinking it should be easy enough most of these kids were in their common room. He turned to the Deputy Headmistress. “Is the full staff here? I see a few empty chairs.”

Still glaring at the intruder, McGonagall said, “The chair at the end belongs to Professor Binns. He is a ghost, so I highly doubt he had anything to do with what happened here tonight. The chair by Professor Babbling belongs to Professor Trelawney, who never leaves her tower. The last chair on that end belongs to Professor Quirrell and he is not feeling well. And, of course, the chair over at the other end belongs to poor Professor Snape.”

“Send a house elf to get Trelawney and Quirrell. I want them here as soon as possible,” Gibbs ordered. 

McGonagall’s lips pursed once more at the order, but she complied nonetheless.

“My good sir, I would ask that you do not order my staff around,” Dumbledore finally spoke. “Everyone here has my deepest confidence. I am sure such drastic measures are not necessary. There really is no reason to keep the children from their beds. If you come to my office, I am sure we can work out a way that is far more suitable.” He had been silent until now because he did not know this man and had no idea how to manipulate this Gibbs to his way of thinking. No one at the Ministry had ever told him that there was a new Auror team.  He was quite upset about that. He needed to know everything that went on in the Ministry. How was he supposed to control everything if information was being withheld from him?

What Dumbledore didn’t know was that the body of government that controlled the law here in Britain, the Wizengamot, was not informed, because they weren’t using the Ministry budget. The only people that knew about this were Fudge, Bones and the DMLE. If this experiment worked, it would be brought before the Wizengamot and a new team of Aurors would be formed and budgeted.

“We’re going to sit right here until I have some idea of what is going on. You don’t seem to understand something, Headmaster Dumbledore. I am in charge of the crime scene, witnesses, and suspects by order of your Minister Fudge.” Gibbs pulled out the papers that Fudge had signed, stating just that. He kept them on his person because of people like Dumbledore. Fudge hadn’t wanted to give such power to a muggle-born Yank, but, he did, albeit reluctantly. Madam Bones had quite a few things on the Minister, and she had used them to get this pushed through without interference from the government.

“So, you will sit tight,” Gibbs continued with a poke in the old man’s direction, “and do what I say until I decide you can go. When my team gets here, you, the Deputy Headmistress and I will head to your office and start making those calls.” He held up his hands and glared at the old man when he tried to interrupt. “The more you argue with me, the longer we’re going to be here. If you just do as you’re told, we can get most of these kids to bed before morning. I’m sure you understand that classes will be canceled until we figure out who shot Snape.”

Dumbledore sighed and sat back down. He really needed to get to his office, but he didn’t think this man was going to let him make any calls to the people that he needed to get in contact with. He desperately needed to get information on this new team and he needed to have someone come and help him sneak peeks at the students' minds, like Severus used to do. He was going to miss his spy. He wanted to get to the person who shot Severus before this Auror did.

Albus glanced at the man who was pacing in front of the table, watching everything. He didn’t look like someone who could be bribed. And, as Dumbledore had no information on him, there was nothing to blackmail him with. The Headmaster knew he could leave the castle at any time, but would put suspicion on him, and he couldn’t afford that. He also needed to have Hagrid remove Fluffy from the third floor. The last thing he needed was to have the Aurors look further into that setup. Dumbledore stood and moved closer to Hagrid intent on telling him to move the three-headed dog.

Gibbs glared at him and firmly pointed to the chair he had just vacated. “No. You will sit until we can talk to you and get your alibi. There’ll be no talking between the staff. I will put the silencing charm back on you if I have to. You’re all suspects until I say otherwise.” Gibbs glanced at his watch and noticed it was getting close to ten p.m. He needed to get started soon.

_Where the hell is my team? That idiot Fudge had better not be giving Todd a hard time. You’d think after the last time he butted heads with Jen, he’d know better._ Just as he was thinking this, a group of twenty-five Aurors came through the doors. They all marched up to the front of the hall. He was happy to note that none of them were wearing robes. That was one of the first things he pounded into their heads. Robes just got in the way.

“Good, you’re here. Let’s get set up. I want you six to go to that room,” Gibbs pointed at the six on the left, then to the ante-chamber, “and set up four tables with five chairs each.” Turning to his Trainee, he asked, “Todd, did you by any chance run into DiNozzo?”

Trainee Todd shook her head. “No, Gibbs, we never left the Ministry. It took a while to get these guys ready.”

Gibbs nodded. “He should be here soon. We’re going to set up mirrors to record through to the lab. I need you and seven others to keep control here. These kids are going to start getting fidgety soon, and they need to be given something to do. I don’t know,” he racked his brain to figure out what could keep the kids busy, “have them write out where they were between five and seven, but don’t read any of it. We can’t talk to them without guardians. Make sure that the parchment is charmed so they can’t compare stories.” He turned to the rest of the group. “Did Todd tell you what you’re looking for?”

The group nodded and some held up a piece of paper with a gun drawn on it. Gibbs gave Kate a withering look. “You know I was joking, right?”

She smirked at him and shrugged. “They really didn’t know. This was easier. I was just following orders.”

Gibbs shook his head, he’d be glad when gun training started, and turned back to the group. “The rest of you, search this whole castle. Start with the teachers’ quarters, then the dorms. When you’re done start from the dungeons and work your way up. Use the spell to find metal. Does everyone know it?” He wasn’t sure they did, these Brits were sadly undertrained. A few raised their hands, stating they didn’t know the charm. “Todd, teach them, then send them on their way. I also want you to check for Animagus. I wouldn’t put it past anyone to hide as a pet.” It was standard procedure in America. These people seemed to forget that disguises were used all the time. He wondered where logic had gone.

Shaking his head, Gibbs went back to giving orders. “Todd, when you’re done showing these guys the spell, I want you to stay here. Make sure no one leaves until I say. Also, when Tony gets here, tell him to start with the staff. We’re still waiting on two more staff members. If they don’t show, send someone after them. Ask one of the Professors who I’m talking about. I’ll be back after I get McGonagall to the headmaster’s office. Once she is there, I’ll be bringing the headmaster back. He needs to be here for the questioning.” He figured that he could keep the old man with him that way. He wasn’t going to let the headmaster compromise his work.

 “Yes, sir,” Todd said with a firm nod.

The group broke up to follow Gibbs's orders.

Gibbs turned to the staff table. “Let’s get this show on the road. I’ll follow you to your office now.”

The headmaster did not look happy about the fact that there were all these people in his castle.

_Tough,_ Gibbs thought. _H_ _e_ _’s just going to have to deal with it._ He looked pointedly at the two head-people, then at the door leading out. “After you.”

They stood and finally started toward the office. Hopefully, the parents would cooperate.  He hated working with pure-bloods. 


	2. The Questioning

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thanks to alix33 and darrelldeam, for all their help in making these easier to read for you my readers, all mistakes are still my own.
> 
> Some people are going to be out of character.

**Hpncis**

As they walked to the headmaster’s office, in uncomfortable silence, Gibbs looked around. He had never been in an enchanted castle before and it intrigued him. He took note of the mass quantities of magical portraits and decided to get his team to question the ones near the scene of the crime. The suits of armor followed with their empty heads as they passed, and Gibbs noted that as well.

They came up to the Gargoyle that guarded the office and the password of ‘Ice Mice’ was given. The grey-haired inspector shook his head at the lack of a secure password and followed the two staff members up the winding self-propelled staircase.  They entered the cluttered office and the Headmaster was making a beeline to the Floo.

“Headmaster, sir, I’m going to need you to sit in your chair a minute while Mrs. McGonagall makes some calls. Once I see she is situated, you and I are going back to the Great Hall,” Gibbs called out, stopping the man before he even got half way there.

“I must open the Floo for _Professor_ McGonagall, my good man,” Dumbledore stated, still inching toward the fireplace. He wasn’t going to escape or anything of that nature. He only needed to make one Floo call to get people started on getting him the information he needed.

“I’m sure you can unlock it from where you’re standing,” Gibbs said firmly with a narrowing of his blue eyes, showing that he was not joking around.

The Headmaster sighed, waved his wand to the fireplace and complied. He sat in the chair at his desk and waited. He then got the idea that he could send a note with Fawkes, his phoenix, to the person he needed to speak to. He grabbed up his quill and started jotting down the request for information on this new team, only to have the quill snatched from his hand.

“What is so important that you need to act like an unruly teenager and openly defy every word I say to you, sir?” Gibbs asked, placing the quill on the far side of the desk and glaring at the old man. “If you are in need of a lawyer then you may call one in via your Patronus, which your staff informed me that you know how to send messages with, or give us the name and we’ll call them.”

“No, no, nothing of that nature. I am simple trying to get a note to a friend who may be able to assist me in solving this horrendous crime,” Dumbledore said placating, his hands making a soothing gesture in front of him.

“That’s mine and my team’s job. I’ll thank you to not interfere. If you still feel that you need to talk to this… friend after we are done questioning you then feel free to do so. If you have an alibi, sir,” Gibbs offered. He may not trust the old man, but he couldn’t hold him if his alibi ran true. He looked around and saw McGonagall reading off a long list. He cursed himself and cast his Patronus to call one of the Aurors in the Great Hall. A large silvery jungle cat shot out of his wand and he gave it the message. “We’ll have to wait for one of the Aurors to come and keep an eye on Professor McGonagall while she is here. Don’t worry I gave him the password. He should be here any minute,” he said, and then smirked at the old man’s glare.

And so they waited in silence, Gibbs not wanting to question anyone until they were in front of the two-way mirrors, so it could be recorded. The two staff members were quiet because they didn’t want to have the strong silencing charm placed on them again. They did, however, share some looks whenever the Agent looked away. Dumbledore trying to relay something to the Transfiguration Professor, but she just looked confused and soon turned her head.

Gibbs heard a ‘ping’ and looked around to see what created the slight noise. There was an instrument on the shelf near the desk and a name flashed across it. It was the name of one of the British Aurors, Jonathan McGee. He then heard the footsteps coming up the stairs and felt a little better about the security of the office, not much, just because you knew a name doesn’t mean you know who is coming.

“Ah, come in, Mr. McGee,” the Headmaster said from behind the desk.

The Auror entered the office and went straight to Gibbs. “You called for assistance, sir?” the middle age man asked. He was hoping to get in good with this team. He had an America cousin that wanted to work for this man, Timothy, so he hoped that if he made a good impression then he could recommend his cousin for when this group returned to their home or have them bring Tim here.

“I need you to stay here with the Professor and make sure she only makes calls to those who are on her list. Also watch her as she contacts those in the non-magical world. Make a list of anyone she can’t contact and we’ll send a team to fetch them,” the Team Leader ordered curtly.

“Sir, yes, sir,” and with a British salute, which was returned with an American one, both men being ex-military. Then the other man went to attend to the much put out professor, who was huffing at having to have a minder.

“We need to go back to the Great Hall, Headmaster,” Gibbs said gesturing to the door. “My team should be set up by now and we’re going to be questioning all your staff first. They, of course, can send for a lawyer and wait for one to be present.”

The Headmaster sighed and rose to join the abrasive man. “Is that completely necessary, my boy? I have repeatedly told you that my staff has my complete confidence,” he questioned, following the Agent down the stairs.

“Sorry, Standard Operating Procedure, sir, everyone gets questioned —including yourself,” Gibbs informed him as they walked back to the Great Hall. He was keeping a close eye on the Headmaster’s reaction to that statement. If he hadn’t been watching he would have missed the narrowing of the lips and eyes, confirming his suspicion that the old guy didn’t like having the power taken away from him. _Oh, well, too bad,_ he thought as they continued their way to the Great Hall.

“Of course, my boy, I will be more than happy to help in any way I can,” came the forced jovial reply, and the rest of the trip was made in silence.

When they entered the Hall, Gibbs noticed that DiNozzo was back and he had coffee. Upon receiving the large Styrofoam cup from his second in command, he asked, “Did you get everything set up?”

“Yeah, Boss, Abby got all the mirrors we need. She’s got the recorders set up just like you asked. We set up the four tables as you requested and have started with the staff,” Tony said eager to get moving along so they could get back to the office and he could really start on the case, and maybe flirt with Kate. He was growing on her, he was sure of it.

“Professor McGonagall is in the headmaster's office calling parents, so we’ll get her last. I see most of the staff is done, so make sure they’re all here, there were two missing earlier and I still don’t see them. If they’re not here in five minutes send two Aurors to get them,” Gibbs ordered taking a sip of his coffee.  “Once you get the last of them questioned start a new list of questions for the kids. Name, year, relationship with the deceased and where they were. If we keep it simple we can get these kids to bed sooner. I’ll question the Headmaster, while you set up for the kids.”

“So, no asking where they were ten years ago and if it involved a bikini?” Tony inquired, wiggling his eyebrows, trying to lighten the mood.

“Look at them, DiNozzo, do you really want to know?” the Team Leader said with an amused raise of his rather bushy grey eyebrow.

Tony looked at the Staff Table and around the Hall, and gave a full body shudder as his answer. Everyone was either too old or too young. Then he started barking orders, while Gibbs went to see what the kids were doing. Most of the children had finished their assignment and were attempting to communicate with each other via quills and parchment, so he gestured for the nearest Auror to take up the writing implements and called a house elf.

‘pop’

“Hey, little guy, I need you to bring games for the kids. They’re going to be here for a while. Also make sure there is plenty of snacks and drinks. Can you do that for me?” Gibbs asked, he always felt sorry for house elves, and since they were the size of small children, albeit ugly ones, he tended to treat them that way.

“Wes can be doing that, Cheify Agent Gibby,” the elf squeaked, nodding its large head in compliance.

“Great, go ahead and get what they need,” he stated and with a ‘pop’ the little guy was gone. It never crossed Gibbs’s mind that the house elves were involved; he knew they couldn’t kill anyone. It was completely against their nature and they’d go crazy if they tried. He’d go down to the kitchen, later, and take a look around just to make sure none of the ones in the castle were acting off, but he doubted it.

Jethro noted that the Headmaster was deep in conversation with a giant of a man. He sighed and went and tapped the man on the shoulder to get his attention. The glare he leveled actually made the old man blush like a child caught in the cookie jar. With a wave of his hand and a jerk of his head, he indicated that he needed the headmaster to follow him. He went to the front of the table and cast the Sonorus again and spoke to the kids, while the Headmaster stood beside him.

“Okay, can I have your attention, please?” And waited for the room to turn to him “I want to thank you for your cooperation and tell you what’s going to happen next,” Gibbs started looking around the room and seeing a lot of nervous kids, but that was to be expected. “My team and I are going to start with the students over seventeen. We’ll work our way down from there. Your parents or guardians are being called and escorted to the castle as we speak. If you need to talk to them then we can provide a room with a guard or you can take them to a corner and someone will remove the spell. Once we’re clear on where you were at the time of the murder, you’ll either come back here or you’ll go to your dorm, if my team has cleared it. If you understand raise your hand,” he finished and there was a sea of hands in the air when he was done. He gave a nod of his head and canceled the spell.

“I’m going to need you to follow me, sir,” he said to the old man at his side.

“Of course, my boy,” the Headmaster replied.

And they made their way to the ante-chamber and to the nearest table. Gibbs put up a silencing spell and started his questions sticking to the ones that are standard for cases like this, watching for any sign of falsehood.

“First of all, I wanted to let you know that this session will be recorded,” Gibbs started pointing at the mirror. “Can you tell me where you were at the time of the murder?” he pulled out his pencil and notebook.

“I was in the Great Hall, enjoying a wonderful meal of braised beef and potatoes. Our house elves are wonderful creatures and they make the most delightful meals,” the Headmaster stated breezily, leaning back in his chair as if they were having tea and nothing serious was happening.

“Do you know of anyone who would want to kill one of your professors?”

“As I told dear Amelia, Severus had many enemies. He was my spy during the war, you see. I kept him here at the castle for his own safety,” Dumbledore stated as he stroked his beard, completely relaxed, knowing he was not a suspect.

Gibbs picked up on the work ‘kept’ and penciled it in his spiral handheld notebook. He was going to have this victim and the Headmaster researched. It will give Abby something to do.

“How did you know the Floo was used in the potions office?” was the next question.

“I have that Floo monitored, via the wards. Severus was to only use it if he needed to contact someone I asked him to, however, he was to get permission from me first,” Dumbledore answered with a slightly strict look in his twinkling blue eyes.

“So the only reason you have that Floo open, and not the others, is because your spy is continuing to gather information for you?” Gibbs asked making more notes on that look. This was a man who did not like to be defied.

“Alas, yes, dear Severus was a very respectable spy and a brilliant Potions Master. He will be missed,” Dumbledore said. A sad look crossed his withered old face. Gibbs did note the calculating look in those twinkling blue eyes though and jotted it down.

“I’m going to need a list of everyone you had him contact in the last month,” Gibbs stated making more notes and then taking a sip of his coffee.

“Are you sure that is completely necessary? I have great faith that none from that list ever entered the castle. The wards would have let me know immediately if they had,” Dumbledore inquired, leaning forward on his elbows, which now rested on the table in front of him.

“Yes, sir, it’s important that I know everyone the deceased has recently had contact with,” Gibbs replied with a firm nod of his head.

Dumbledore gave a put out sigh. “Then I will endeavor to make sure you have what you need. All I ask is that you be inconspicuous as to where you got your information. I may yet need to use another spy for when Voldemort returns and I cannot have myself compromised,” he said with reluctance.

“We’re always discreet,” Gibbs replied, ignoring the comment about Voldemort, since it was not his job at the moment. “Thank you for your time. You may return to the Great Hall. Don’t leave there until my team is done with the search.” He stood and escorted the Headmaster back to the Great Hall. Upon returning to the table, Gibbs picked up his coffee, took a sip and then looked into the mirror and asked, “Did you get all that, Abs?”

 “Yep, got it. I don’t like working with these things, Gibbs,” his gothic lab tech complained. “They’re so old-fashioned.”

“Sorry, Abs, but it’s the best we can do. Just do your best, like you always do.”

“You got it, Gibbs. Oh, and Ducky wants to see you when you get back to headquarters.”

“I’ll check in on him as soon as I’m done here. I want you to run the names of Severus Tobias Snape and Albus Percival Wulfric Brian Dumbledore see what you can come up with. Have some old records brought over from the Ministry and I’ll get Tony on it when we return. It’ll give you something to do until we find a gun or bullet,” he suggested, knowing it wasn’t her job, but until they find the gun or Ducky gives her something, she’ll be bored.

“You got it.”

“I’m calling the next person in. Make sure the recording devices are working every now and then, would ya? I’ll see you when we get back,” Gibbs said, standing up and moving away from the table. He was informed that the two professors that were missing prior were still unaccounted for. He sent a couple of men to go and get them.

“Will do,” came the reply and he heard her move off to do as he asked.

After he talked to his men and got their reports on the staff, he told the Auror there that he was ready for the next person.  Sitting back at the table and paging through his notebook for a clean page, he waited. He sighed as the first adult student was brought in; there was a defiant glare on the young woman’s face. _It’s going to be a long night,_ he thought as he took a sip of his cooling coffee and looked over the questions they’d be asking the students.

Most of the questioning went off without a hitch. They’d been going at this for hours and were almost done with the students. So far there had been some unruly parents and teenagers, mostly pure-bloods that didn’t like being questioned by a Muggle-born. They had taken three parents into custody for trying to curse the Aurors. Those people believed that someone of such a low rank had no right to question anyone in their family. The Team Leader would have to go over those recordings when he got back to headquarters.

The one thing the entire team got from this was that the Potions Master was well hated. There wasn’t a single person who liked the man. Not even his colleagues. He was completely and utterly despised. The only good thing that was said about him was that he was the best Potions Master in the UK. Oh, the Headmaster had put in a good word for the man, but you could tell that he didn’t really mean the person, only the spy.

The search had turned up a Cerberus, an enchanted stone, five guns, sixteen illegal potions, twelve Dark objects, and one Animagus posing as a pet rat, who was quickly captured and put in magical restraining cuffs. They found out the Cerberus belonged to the half-giant and told him to get it out of the castle. The stone was discovered to belong to the Flamels, so it was returned. Amelia was in a right fit that there were such dangerous things around her niece and took over that part of the case, since it really didn’t have to do with the murder.

Everyone associated with the illegal items, except the guns, had been taken to the Ministry to be charged. The owners of the guns, since they were not illegal in the wizarding world, were taken to headquarters for further questioning. Most were let go, since they had alibis, with a warning that guns were too dangerous to be around kids.

Gibbs wondered where they got the guns in the UK, granted most of them were old army issue guns, but still in this country getting a gun was pretty hard to do. Not like the States were you could walk up to one out of a hundred teenagers and they could tell you where to find one.

They had also had one professor who did a runner, Quirrell, and one who refused to come out of her room, Trelawney. It took three Aurors to bring the hysterical woman down. After questioning the staff about her, they found that she was always this emotional and paranoid. She was so far in her sherry that they had to put her in a cell to detox.

Gibbs shook his head to clear it. He was getting tired and was glad there were only a few first years left.

After nodding to the agent that he was ready, in walked a bushy-haired young girl with a similar looking woman at her side. The poor girl was crying. She had been the only one to show any angst like emotion so far. They sat at the table indicated and Gibbs handed her a handkerchief.

“May I ask why you are crying? Did you like your professor?” Gibbs asked softly, taking out his notebook.

“No not really. He was a very mean man. No, I’m crying because it’s my birthday,” the young girl sniffed. “Now, I’ll always remember it as the day Professor Snape died.” She cried harder as her mom snuggled her close.

Gibbs closed his eyes and tried to come up with something to say that would make her feel better and came up blank. “How about we get you done and then you can spend time with your mom,” he offered, hoping Mrs. Granger could talk her around.

She sniffed again and dried her eyes. Her face firmed and she nodded that she was ready. The questions were the same as he asked everyone. Her name—Hermione Granger— her year —first— and her age —twelve today.

“How did you feel about Professor Snape? You already stated he was mean, what did you mean by that?” the Team Leader asked, pencil poised to take notes.

“He never let me answer questions in class. He was horribly mean to Harry and Neville, and they never really did anything wrong,” the now named Hermione said. “He would take away points from them for doing things like breathing too hard. He was a very mean man.” She didn’t like to speak ill of the dead, but this was a police officer, so she was only telling the truth.

“Okay, did he do anything to you?”

“He called me a know-it-all,” she said dipping her head in shame, only to have her mum give her a supportive hug. The young girl started sniffling again, as if she just remembered why she was crying beforehand.

Gibbs asked where she had been at the time of the murder. She told him she was in the library and that Ms. Pince could confirm that. That was his last question, so he put his notebook down.

“McGee,” Gibbs said to the British Auror who was standing by, “take Miss and Mrs. Granger to that village, Hogsmeade, and buy them dinner on me. If the Headmaster asks tell him you’re taking them to headquarters to question them further and you’ll be back in two hours.” He held up his hands at the protest and gave the man some money. “It’s the least I can do to help,” he said. “Try and have some fun and forget what happened today. There is no need to let the vile man ruin what is supposed to be a good day.” It was lame, he knew, but, if it helped even a little bit, he was all for it.

When they left, the sniffling girl looked back and gave him a watery smile.

“You’re such a softie,” came a voice from the mirror.

“Don’t spread it around,” scoffed Jethro as he gave a pointed look at Abby.

“Whatever,” she said as she rolled her eyes and went back to work.

Indicating he was ready for the next student, he groaned when an extremely nervous young blond haired boy was brought in with his angry looking guardian. A formidable woman, who was dressed very old-fashioned and had a large stuffed bird on her head.

“Good morning, thanks for waiting. Have a seat,” he said to the pair, nodding to the chairs on the other side of the table. “I’m Chief Inspector Gibbs and I’ll be asking the young man a few questions. Just to let you know, this is being recorded.” He nodded towards the mirror.

“Thank you,” said the older woman curtly. “I am Augusta Longbottom and this is my grandson Neville.”

Gibbs waited until they were seated and turned his attention to Neville. “Try and relax, we’re not here to hurt anyone. If you didn’t do anything wrong then you have nothing to worry about,” he said just as he had told every other nervous child that sat in that chair. Yet, unlike the other kids, this child didn’t relax at all instead he got more anxious.

“Are you accusing my grandson of something? Neville wouldn’t hurt a fly, look at him, all whiny and stupid. We were not even sure he was a wizard until he bounced from a fall out a window,” Madam Longbottom said, making the child sink into his chair.

Gibbs raised an eyebrow and jotted some notes down. “No, ma’am, I only need to ask him where he was when Professor Snape was shot. We’re asking everyone who was in the castle at the time. It is standard procedure,” the grey haired man explained.

The old lady harrumphed and looked at the scared child with mild loathing. “Sit up, Neville, and answer the man’s questions so I can go home,” she snapped, making the child jump.

Neville sat up and tried, and failed, to look brave.

“Okay, Neville, I only have a few questions,” Gibbs said gently, trying to calm the boy down.

“What is your full name?”

“Neville Longbottom,” the child said, sitting up straighter.

“Age?”

“Eleven.”

“Where were you between five and seven last night?” it now being the wee hours of the morning.

“I…I… I wa… wa… was in…in…in the du… dun… dungeon,” Neville stuttered out. He was so terrified that Gibbs was afraid he was going to wet himself.

Gibbs looked back over his notes and sighed, now he was slightly angry at the Aurors, because this boy was still here and not at headquarters. He was one of the ones that had a gun in his possessions. “Can you tell me why you were there?” he asked still gently, not bringing up the gun yet. He knew if this kid had shot anyone then it was an accident.

“Pro… Professor Sn… Sna… Snape gave m… me de… dete… detention.”

“Okay, calm down. Here have a drink of water. I need to talk to your grandmother. You try and calm down okay?” Gibbs said, pouring the terrified young man some water.

The boy took the glass, but it shook so hard that it was sloshing all over the table. Gibbs stood up and gestured for the woman to follow him a short way from the table. When they got there, he put up a silencing charm, he included the mirrors, so his talk with her could be recorded. “I’m going to have to take him in for questioning at Headquarters. There was a gun found in his trunk and we need to know why it was there.”

“You dare,” Augusta hissed, leaning into the Inspector’s space, like he was an unruly child. “We are a pure-blood family. There is no way that that child could do anything.” Never once believing her always frightened grandson could hold a gun, let alone fire it. Oh, she knew what a gun was; she had lived through the Great War after all. Bombs and guns everywhere are not something soon forgotten.

“Ma’am, I don’t care if you’re the Queen of England. There was a gun in his possessions and a man dead from a gunshot wound. We’re taking him in and you need to get a lawyer,” Gibbs barked back, closing the distance between them and looking her dead in the eye, not at all intimidated by this woman. “Plus, you need to be there yourself as you’re his guardian.”

“I will see you before the Wizengamot for this. It is an outrage, accusing my grandson of a crime,” she all but shouted, slamming her fragile fist on the table next to her.

“They have no power over me, so you go ahead and do that. I have an ironclad contract, which states that my team and I can question anyone for any reason —if it is pertaining to a crime we’re investigating,” he said leaning forward again.

She glared at him and then turned and stormed out of the room, without a glance at her grandson, causing the poor boy to cry.

Gibbs went to the child, wrapped an arm around his shoulders until he calmed down. “We’re going to stop asking you questions, for now, but, we found a gun in your trunk, so we need to take you someplace else, okay?” he asked softly, noting the surprised look on the child’s face when he mentioned the trunk and that gave him hope that this child wasn’t involved.

Neville nodded a little calmer now that his gran had left, though he was still plenty scared. He tried once again to drink some water and finally got the glass to his mouth without spilling more on his already wet robes.

Gibbs stood up and motioned for Kate and when she got to the table he erected a silencing charm and started giving orders, “I need you to take this young man, Neville Longbottom, to Headquarters. Don’t ask him anything about the case. Don’t record anything he might say. Try and keep him as calm as you can. No cuffs or suppressors, just keep an eye on him. His grandmother is getting a lawyer and will hopefully meet you there. Then you can question him about his relationship with our dead Potions Master and why he has a gun. You got it?”

“Yes, sir,” Kate Todd said with a firm nod of her head, “no questioning, don’t treat him like a suspect until the grandmother and lawyer show.”

“Yeah, and see if you can’t find something for him to do while he waits. Also keep him away for the adult suspects,” Gibbs added softly.

“Okay, Gibbs, I’ll take care of him,” Todd said and turned to the young boy still trying to drink the water. Her eyes softened and she prayed he was innocent. She went and tapped his shoulder, causing him to spill more, and nodded towards the door. She cast a drying charm on his robes and gently guided him out.

Gibbs sighed and returned to the table, wishing he had more coffee. He turned toward the mirror and asked, “You there, Abs?”

She popped up in the mirror and you could see there were dried tears on her face. “That was so sad, that poor boy. His grandmother was such a bitch. You don’t think he had anything to do with this, do you, Gibbs?” she asked rapidly.

“Merlin, I hope not. I hate it when kids are involved. Put that recording to the side for me, will ya? I’ll need it later,” he said, looking at his empty cup and lamenting that house elves in this school didn’t know what coffee was. He was going to have to stop and grab some on the way to the office.

“You got it,” she nodded her pigtail bobbing. “Oh, Gibbs, I have those records you wanted and we did a tox screen on our guy and it came back with a few potions in it. Nothing mind controlling or deadly, or anything like that, but there were a lot of calming draughts. Thought you’d want to know,” Abby added, drinking from her Caf-Pow.

“Thanks, Abs,” he said, glancing at his watch and running a hand through his hair. “We should be done here in about an hour. There are only a couple of kids left. I’m taking the next kid now. See you when we get back.” He nodded and turned to the door and gestured he was ready for the next kid.

In walked a horse faced woman who was yelling silently and gesturing wildly with a slightly nervous young messy dark haired boy with glasses —who was looking amused at his guardian’s predicament.

“Good morning,” Gibbs said, nodding to the chairs across from him, “I would thank you for patiently waiting, but I can see that didn’t happen. So take a seat and we can get done, and you can probably go home.”

The boy and the fuming woman sat in the seats indicated and Gibbs said, “I’ll take off the charm once you stop yelling and if you start I will put it back on. The longer you complain, the longer we’ll be sitting here. I, for one, have more important things to be doing, but I can wait as long as you can.” The woman’s mouth snapped shut and she nodded once. Gibbs removed the charm and said, “I’m Chief Inspector Gibbs and I’ll be asking the young man some questions.” And started to give the standard questions and warnings, only for the woman to interrupt.

“You have no right bringing normal people among you freaks. I don’t care what the freak has done, you can lock him up forever, the little ungrateful brat,” the horse faced woman started to go on until Gibbs raised his wand then her jaw clicked shut.

“Sorry about her,” the boy said with a shrug making Gibbs turn to him, “I’m Harry Potter and this in my aunt, Petunia Dursley. She doesn’t like me very much.” A small smirk adorned his face.

“I can see that,” Gibbs said and noted that Harry wasn’t really scared of his aunt so she must be full of hot air. “Tell me Harry where were you between five and seven last night?”

“I was in my common room at five and me and my friend, Ron, went to dinner around six,” Harry answered without hesitation.

“Okay,” Gibbs noted his notebook, “Tell me about your relationship with Professor Snape.”

“You mean Severus Snape? They let that horrid freak teach children?” the aunt questioned with a look of horror on her face.

“You know the deceased?”

“Of course, I knew him. He grew up in my childhood neighborhood, Spinners End. He was friends with my wretched sister, Lily. Ugly boy, all greasy and sloppy. He’s the one who told Lily she was a witch. They had a falling-out when they were here in her fifth year. Good riddance to bad rubbish, I say,” Petunia said with a disgusted look on her face.

“When was the last time you saw Mr. Snape?”

“When I was sixteen, we moved from Spinners End and I haven’t seen him since.”

Gibbs turned to Harry and indicated he wanted his question answered.

“Well, he hated me, though now that I’ve heard that story I don’t know why,” Harry answered, his face scrunched in confusion. If Snape was friends with his mum, shouldn’t the man have liked him a little, though Aunt Petunia said they had a falling-out, so maybe that’s why.

“What gave you the impression he hated you?”

“Well, in our first class he sneered at me and took points away for no reason. Called me names and such. Even accused me of making Neville melt his cauldron and I wasn’t even near Neville. He wasn’t a nice man,” Harry answered honestly.

“You probably caused trouble, you ungrateful little troublemaker,” Petunia snapped. Harry just glared at her.

Gibbs jotted that down and turned back to the pair. “Harry, you can go back to your dorm, if we need anything we’ll come and get you. Mrs. Dursley, you can go home now. Same as with Harry, we’ll contact you if we need you. One of the Aurors will take you,” he said waving an Auror over and ordering him to get Dursley home.

“I don’t want you freaks near my house again! You hear me? Don’t you come near me again!” Petunia shouted and was quickly silenced and led from the room.

Harry got up and put out his hand and said, “I really am sorry about her. She really, really doesn’t like wizards.”

Gibbs shook the tiny hand and nodded. “Thanks, but don’t apologize for other people’s stupidity. You can go now.”

The boy left and Gibbs ran his hand over his face. Only one more left and he could go and get some sleep, a quick power nap should set him right. “Abs, get me what you can on Spinners End, okay?”

“You got it, Gibbs,” was the answer, though he could tell his tech was as angry at the last interview as she had been sad at the one before.

Gibbs sighed. _Soon_ , he thought as he waited for the last kid, _and I’ll be able to catch a nap._


	3. Back at Headquarters

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thanks to my betas, alix33 and darrelldeam, for looking this over. Any mistakes are of course my own.

**_September 14, 1991 around 9 a.m. WCIS building_ **

They had finally finished the interviews at the castle; most of the kids had been in their common room, detention or library. All of the professors, barring Trelawney and Quirrell, had been either with another professor or monitoring a detention. The groundskeeper was in the Forbidden Forest and was vouched for by a centaur. The students without an alibi had been brought here along with the ones possessing a gun. In all there were ten suspects at headquarters.

Gibbs had taken his power nap and was on his way to the morgue to talk to Ducky. “What do you have for me, Ducky?” he asked as he entered the room.

The room looked like any other morgue; it had three metal examination tables in the middle, one with the deceased on it. Off to the sides were medical equipment and a large sink, in front of the sink was a large space that a table could be brought to, so that the bodies could be washed and evidence could be gathered. In the back of the room were the freezers where the cadavers were stored until such time as all evidence was taken from them and they could be released to family.

“Well, Jethro,” the Medical Examiner said as he pulled the sheet back from the now cleaned up body, “this poor young man, like I said, was shot at close range. From the angle of the wound it was either a child or someone sitting down. It is a shame what I have heard about him, reminds me of a fellow I met in Scotland in my youth. That man did not have any peers either. He turned into a bitter old man who died in his sleep one night. They didn’t even know he was dead until a week later when he hadn’t shown for work. It is a wonder this lad worked with children at all.” His eyes took on the wondering look they got whenever he remembered the past.

“Ducky, do we know what kind of gun was used?” Gibbs asked, bringing Ducky back to the present.

“You are looking for a small gun, older model, probably one used in the Great War.”

“Thanks, Ducky, that narrows it down to two,” the Team Leader said with a nod of his head, thinking over the guns found in the castle.

“Abigail will be able to tell you more,” Healer Mallard suggested, putting the sheet back over Snape’s head and going to his lab equipment, indicating that he had no more information.

“Yeah, I’m going to see her next. Thanks, Ducky, see if you can find out if there were any more potions in his blood. That much Calming Potion would’ve left him unable to do his job. From what we’ve learned about this guy, he wasn’t the type to teach and I want to know if he was taking anything else. Also check for spell residue and see if there were any compulsion charms on him. Something the headmaster said strikes me as odd,” Gibbs requested as he moved toward the large double doors that lead to Abby’s domain, picking up the Caf-Pow he had left outside the morgue.

“Of course, Jethro, I will do a deeper study,” Ducky said, picking up his wand and started to approach the body. “Reminds me of the time…” he mumbled to his assistant, who was watching closely.

“What do you have for me, Abs?” he asked as entered the lab and handed her the drink.

The lab was a mix of wizard and non-wizard. In the center was an array of computers all hooked up to various contraptions for tests, such as blood work or potions deconstruction. Those implements were littered along tables that stretched along the walls, making a U shaped area for the lab tech. On the other side of the room, was a glass wall where spells were used for magical tests.

“Well, from what I’ve discovered, this guy might as well have been a stoner as much Calming Draughts as he was taking,” the gothic lab tech answered as she grabbed her drink and took a long pull from the straw. She went over to her computer and punched in a code. “See here, those potions were almost at a toxic level.” She pointed to the numbers on the screen. “It didn’t kill him, surprisingly; he’s been taking them for a long time. If I didn’t know better I would say he was addicted, but these potions aren’t like that.”

“Did they slow him down? From our information this guy was a spy, which could explain the potions. However, that war has been over for ten years. He should’ve gotten out of that mode by now. Then again, the Headmaster said he was still gathering information. Run the tests deeper. Ducky’s going to grab some more blood for you and he’ll be running a residue test,” Gibbs said, coming over to look at the numbers even though most of them didn’t make sense to him. It really didn’t match up with the interviews, the kids all said this guy had a temper, if he was taking that much Calming Draughts, he should have been mellow. There was something else going on.

“With what he was taking it should have floored him, but, it didn’t. I’m already on the deeper scan. I was about to talk to Ducky when you showed,” Abby said proud of the fact that she out thought her boss.

She really liked Gibbs; he was like a second father to her. He always made sure she had everything she needed in her lab and that she never ran out of Caf-Pows. Any time she was lonely or sad, she could always count on Gibbs to cheer her up or invite her over to look at his boat, though the boat was in the States at the moment. Her boss had a temper and to quell it he was building a boat in his basement, but right now he was just whittling small animals and such, which when done he donated to the only magical orphanage. He was such a softie.

“What can you tell me about the guns?” he asked, looking at his notes and having a good idea which two were more than likely suspect.

“Well, all the guns are old service arms, but we’re looking for the smaller ones so we have two that fit that description. The first one, Browning Hi-Power, hasn’t been fired in a while, but the second one, the Ruger P85, was fired recently. Gibbs tell me it wasn’t the kid’s,” she begged her eyes watering just a little.

“Damn, I wish I could, Abs. Don’t worry, I’ll make sure he is questioned lightly. The kid doesn’t seem the type to kill anyone. We’ll get to the bottom of this,” he said, gathering her into a hug, petting her hair until she calmed down. After she did, he held her at arm’s length and handed her a tissue. “Okay, keep up the good work. I’ve got interrogations to perform,” he said as he was walking to the exit.

“You got it, Gibbs,” she said, breathing much easier. Gibbs will take care of it, so she turned back to her computer to gather as much evidence as she could to help.

Gibbs made his way to the elevator and took it to the bullpen. As he walked through the doors he noted that his agents weren’t working as usual. DiNozzo was flirting with Kate and she was doing all she could to snark back at him.

The bullpen was set up with waist high cubicles. His was along one side and had an empty one next to it. DiNozzo’s was too the far right facing Kate's. There was a divider which separated another area for the team they were here to train. It was empty right now, since the Brits only came to train at night. Right now his team was working around the clock, since there were only five of them. Ducky’s assistant was one of the British Healers there to learn about Muggle style autopsies.  

The Aurors they were training had thus far learned to stop wearing robes and how to do a complete magical sweep on a crime scene. Gibbs was going to start training them in guns soon, but not until after this case was solved. Until then the Brits would be running their own cases, if they needed help Amelia would send them over, but for right now, training was put on hold until everything happening at Hogwarts was solved.

There was no director in the office; the only person Jethro answered to was Amelia. He was in complete control of how to run this investigation.

“DiNozzo, leave Todd alone,” he barked, going to his desk and placing his coffee on the corner. “Tell me what you have on the victim.”

“Sorry, Boss,” Tony said sheepishly and then picked up the file on the desk and cast a projection spell to bring up the slideshow he had created. “As you know Severus Tobias Snape was thirty-one years old. He was a half-blood wizard and the son of the witch, Eileen Snape (née Prince) and a non-magical named Tobias Snape, there are reports that the dad was abusive. Snape graduated Hogwarts in 1978 and went on to become the youngest potion master in Great Britain. He took the job as professor in 1980 when the war was at its peak. That’s all we can find on him. I miss gathering information on computers, I wish this country would hurry up and get modern,” he complained. He hated going through old dusty parchment.

“We’re working with Amelia to get it set up,” Gibbs said waving off the complaint. He had been fielding them since they got here. “According to Abby and Ducky, we’re looking at the Longbottom boy. What do you have on him?” he asked rubbing his chin, hoping it was some mistake.

“What? Really? Damn, I was hoping it was one of the bigots. Neville Longbottom was born to Frank and Alice Longbottom on July 30, 1980. The parents are in a long term ward in St. Mungo’s after being held under the pain curse by Death Eaters, shortly after their Master was vanquished. He was raised by his grandmother, Augusta Longbottom, who you met. Anyway, all I could find on the kid was that for the longest time they thought he was a squib. He spent a lot of time with his squib uncle, Albert Longbottom. The uncle is seventy-nine and fought in WWII, that’s probably how he got the gun,” the second in command finished reading the file and placed it back on his desk.

“Contact the grandmother, have her get down here with her lawyer. Tell her the sooner she complies the sooner we’ll be done with her. She’s a real piece of work so try and be professional. Take Kate with you,” Gibbs ordered, turning back to his computer and entering the information he had been given this morning. He too couldn’t wait until Britain caught up with the States. Who knew how long they would be here getting a British team ready.

“You got it, Boss. Come on, Probie, I get to drive to the Apparation point. I have no idea what kind of driver you are and I’m not about to put my life in your hands,” Tony said as he grabbed his jacket off the back of his chair and started to the elevator.

Because of the magic it took to Apparate or Port-key you had to leave the building as to not blow up the computers and since they were in a Muggle area it was decided that a separate point would be used in an abandoned building a few miles away, which WCIS bought.

“I’ll have you know I’m a damn good driver. I just have a hard time remembering what side of the road to be on,” Kate said defensively, also grabbing her coat and wallet.

“Like I said, I’ll drive…” the bickering could be heard until the elevator doors shut.

Gibbs called Amelia on the mirror. “Amelia, I need you to come down here. We’ve narrowed the gun down to one that was found in the Longbottom boy’s trunk. I want you to be here for the questioning, so you can try and keep his grandmother under control. This is your turf, so you know how to deal with these people better than I do,” he explained when her face came into view.

“Yes and a Good morning to you too, Special Agent Gibbs. I am doing fine thank you for asking,” the Head of the DMLE replied. Then she got a sad and thoughtful look on her face, “Augusta’s grandson, you say? Are you sure? What is a gun?” she fired off questions. She had never had to venture into the Muggle world that wasn’t her Department. She couldn’t believe a child was to blame for this.

“Sorry for being abrupt, it’s been a long night and I’m running on coffee right now,” Gibbs apologized, not wanting to get on this lady’s bad side. “Add the fact that a child is involved and I’m not at my best. At any rate, I do need you here within the hour for the reasons I stated before,” he added taking a long drink from his cooling coffee. “I’ll explain what a gun is and show what damage it can do when you get here.  Though, you should have already guessed that from the crime scene.”

“I’ll be there as soon as I can. Done.” And her face disappeared.

It wasn’t until two hours later that everyone was gathered. Gibbs took that time to show Amelia what a gun was and how effective a weapon it was. She was shocked that such a simple thing could cause so much damage and ordered Gibbs to make sure her Aurors knew this as well. She was going to have to do some heavy arguments to get them banned in the wizarding world. How they didn’t know about them, given their history was a mystery to her that she planned on solving.

Now, Tony and Kate sat on the other side of the two-way mirror while Gibbs and Amelia made their way into the interrogation room. The room was simple; there was a medium size table in the center of the room with six chairs around it, three on each side. Gibbs, Jen and Amelia were on one side. Neville, who looked deathly ill, Madam Longbottom and their lawyer, Daniel Radcliff, were on the other. A recorder was set to the side and a pitcher of water with six glasses was in the middle.

“Okay, Neville, we’re going to ask you a few more questions. I want to inform you and everyone here there is a mild truth spell on the room. It can be overcome with enough willpower, however, it’s standard procedure to have one on all interrogation rooms. You are also being recorded. So tell me, Neville, where did you get the gun?” Gibbs started off gently. The boy had already had a Calming Draught and it didn’t look like it was working. This made him sad, because it pointed to him being the main suspect.

Neville jolted violently when the question was asked and looked to his grandmother. Seeing her disappointed and stern face, he knew he would get no help from her. He looked to the lawyer whose professional mask was only slightly better. The lawyer nodded and indicated he should answer honestly.

“I…I… I go… got it from my Uncle Albert,” he stuttered out, then took a deep breath and looked straight at the kind eyes of the man in front of him, which made him relax some now that he knew that someone was on his side —he hoped. In a much firmer voice he continued, “He gave it to me when they thought I was a squib.” He looked down at the table ashamed at how his family felt about him. His hands clasped, white knuckled, as he pulled up every bit of courage that he possessed. He was a Gryffindor after all and the hat said he was brave, if he wanted to be. “He showed me how to us… use it. Said that it would protect me —like magic.”

“Okay. Thank you for that,” Gibbs said kindly and wrote the information down in his ever handy notebook. “Now, tell me why you brought it to detention?”

“Pro… Professor Sn…Snape scares, scared, me. He was always yelling at us and calling us names. He even let the potion that exploded spatter all over me and I got boils something awful,” Neville explained in a much calmer voice, looking at the Special Agent and again seeing encouragement.

“Did you pull the gun on him?” Gibbs asked, hoping against hope that the kid hadn’t.

“Y… Ye… Yes,” the boy cried and put his head on the table, thinking he had just sealed his fate to Azkaban.

“Neville Longbottom,” Augusta shouted at the bowed head, getting up from her chair so quickly it clattered behind her and making the boy cry harder, “I’ve never been so ashamed of anyone in my life!”

“Lady, you need to sit down and be quiet until we are done,” Gibbs snapped, tired of this woman’s constant criticisms of the poor kid. It was no wonder he was a nervous wreck all the time. It was too bad he couldn’t haul her in for abuse, but until she raised her hand she had done nothing illegal.

“You dare talk to me like that,” she hissed, turning to whom she felt was the offender. Her eyes blazing at him as if he was lower than low and had no right to talk to her at all, never mind in such a tone of voice.

“Sit or you can sit in a cell until you calm the hell down,” he snapped back, leaning towards her, hands on the table in front of him showing once again she wasn’t in charge.

The lawyer stood to interfere, but Amelia and Jen shook their heads, the Special Agent was well within his rights. So Mr. Radcliff just picked up the chair and guided the angry woman back into it. Then he went back to his own chair and sat and waited.

Neville was crying throughout it all and they were trying to figure out a way to calm him down so he could answer more questions. Jen hit him with a cheering charm and that seemed to be working. The grandmother didn’t do anything at all except sit and fume at the disrespect she was getting from this muggle-born Yank. It was obvious that the United States of America had no respect for pure-bloods.

After Neville stopped crying and raised his head, they continued. “You said you pulled your gun. Did you shoot Professor Snape?” Gibbs asked.

“I… I… I…” the blonde boy started and then his eyes rolled to the back of his head and he slumped out of his chair in a dead faint.

Gibbs waved DiNozzo in and said, “Take him to the healer and meet me upstairs.” The Agent nodded and levitated the out cold boy to the infirmary.

“Augusta, how could you be so cruel to your only grandson,” Amelia snapped at her longtime friend, berating herself for not seeing it sooner.

“No grandson of mine would use a gun to protect himself,” the old biddy sniffed, and then stood as she started to storm out of the room.

“You are still needed for when we question him again. Don’t go far,” Gibbs said to her back.

The lawyer put his papers away and nodded to those in the room and went to follow his client.

“Amelia, what do you think about Neville?” Gibbs asked, turning towards the head of the DMLE.

“Truthfully, I don’t know much about the lad. His grandmother kept him mostly hidden, and until today I thought it was for his protection. I’m not sure what to think,” she answered with a shake of her head.

“Alright, I’ll get back to you when he wakes. Thanks for coming and keep your mirror handy,” the inspector said, shaking his bosses hand and went to find his agents.

While the Longbottom boy was recovering, Gibbs and his team were going over evidence. “I don’t believe for one minute that this kid is guilty. Find me everything you can on the gun. Do we have the lab results?” Gibbs paced, a bit out of character, but this was one emotional case.

“Yeah, Boss,” Tony said, picking up a folder. “I just got them from Abby. She said there were four sets of prints on the gun, the kid’s and a few adults’. We’re checking them out on everyone we brought in.” He placed the folder on the desk and looked at his boss. He, like Gibbs, hated when kids were involved.

“Let me know the results as soon as you have them. I want this kid out of the building and back at school. Also find out what you can about his family. The way the grandmother acts has my abuse radar going wild,” the Team Leader ordered. He was going to do what he can to make it up to the child, no kid should be that terrified of his family. He remembered questioning the other boy, Harry something, you could tell that that boy wasn’t scared of his family no matter what the aunt’s mouth spewed.

“You got it, Boss,” DiNozzo said as he grabbed his jacket to head back to the archives.

“Kate,” Gibbs turned his attention to the rookie, “what can you tell me about the other suspects?”

“Well, sir,” Kate started, she was still a little nervous around her new boss, though believe it or not Tony was making it easier, “we know Sybill Trelawney, age twenty-nine, was married young and divorced quickly. She married a muggle with the last name of Higglebottom and when she refused to take his name they separated. They were only married a few months. She has been working as a Divination professor since 1980. I was told by some of the other teachers that she is a very paranoid person who rarely leaves her tower; she hides there and drinks her sherry, so rumor goes. Judging from how we found her, I’d say that bit of gossip is true. We do know that she is an avid mystery novel reader. She seems to be obsessed with Sherlock Holmes.  She also has an extremely bad habit of predicting a child’s death with each new class she teaches. It seems to be a running joke among the staff. That’s all we know,” she said closing the folder.

“And the others?”

“Lucius Malfoy, thirty-seven, a pure-blood wizard, and son of Abraxas Malfoy, husband of Narcissa Black and the father of Draco Malfoy. He was educated at Hogwarts, where he was a prefect in Slytherin House. He seems to have a hand in a lot of politics, to the point that rumor has it the Minister is in his back pocket. He is the patriarch of the Malfoy family, believes strongly in notions of blood purity and the superiority of pure-blood wizards. He joined the Death Eaters, who shared his views and participated in the war with Voldemort. After the war he managed to avoid imprisonment by claiming that he had been acting under the Imperious Curse. There are rumors that he bought his, and some fellow Death Eaters, way out of a trial with truth serum. He was one of the few people outside the castle to have contact with our victim. It is said that Snape was actually a spy for him or his boss, but there isn’t any proof to either of those rumors, well not that we can get.” They had tried to get bank records, but the goblins weren’t forthcoming. The Floo monitoring Dept. in the Ministry was just as tightlipped. This man had greased quite a few palms to make him look clean.

“Continue,” Gibbs said, settling down at his desk to input the information she was feeding him. Oh, it was probably in the work files, but it kept his mind off the Longbottom boy.

“Marcus Flint, sixteen, he is captain of the Slytherin Quidditch team and plays chaser. His parents are Nathanial Flint and Marcella Flint (née Greengrass). He is top in his class in potions and was only assigned detention for being too hard on one of the first years in his House. Seems Professor Snape didn’t like to be overshadowed. That’s all we know on him as well. I’m with Tony, I miss computer archives.”

Gibbs waved the complaint away once again and they went over the other suspects. No one else seemed to pan out, they’d just need to question them and get them on their way.

“Find out more on Trelawney’s husband. See if he could have taught her how to use a gun,” he ordered, taking a sip of his coffee and turning back to the files.

“Yes, sir,” Todd said, sitting at her computer. Since the husband was muggle he should be in the system.

Gibbs sat at his desk and called down to Abby. “Abs, I need you to check the fingerprints of Trelawney, Malfoy and Flint first. The teenager was the one that called it in and I want to get him out of here as soon as possible, if he is not guilty. See if you can find the prints on Albert Longbottom and if they're a match. I doubt the kid took time to clean the gun after it was handed over.”

“You got it, Gibbs,” the tech said and signed off.

Gibbs sighed; he needed to get back to questioning the kid. He called the infirmary and was told the boy had recovered and was waiting to start again. Neville seemed to be a lot calmer now and Gibbs took that as a good sign. So he told them to gather the grandmother and lawyer (who were still in the building, albeit very unhappy) to the interrogation room. He mirrored Amelia, but she was busy with another case and waved him off, stating she trusted him to be polite. Silly her. He got up and made his way back to Jens office to let her know he was ready.

“Jen,” he said as he entered her office after knocking, “the Longbottom boy is up and ready. They said he seems a lot calmer now.”

“That is good to hear. The sooner we get this over with the sooner we can start on the others. We can’t hold them for much longer and I want to sink my nails into that loudmouth Malfoy. His lawyer has been sending me owls all day and so has the Minister. I already had it out with that idiot. Damn, I wish these people would read their own laws. It would save me a headache,” the leggy blonde answered as she grabbed a headache potion and knocked it back.

“Come on, tiger, let’s get this over with,” Gibbs said with a smile. He always liked this lawyer. She had no problem telling you to shove it. They made their way down and when they got to the interrogation room. The two Longbottoms and Radcliff were there.  So they took their seats on the other side of the table and reminded Neville of his rights.

“Okay, Neville, are you feeling better?” Gibbs asked kindly, shooting a warning glare to the grandmother, who was silently fuming at having to be kept in this muggle building and told she could not use magic.

“Y… Yes, sir,” the boy answered, looking Gibbs directly in the face.

“Very good. We’ll start where we left off. Tell me what happened last night,” he enquired as he jotted a few things down.

“Well, ummm, I went to the office like I was told. Some of the older boys were t…teasing me, t…telling me I was going to be cut up for po…potions ingredients and stuff like that. I was scared so I took my gun. Anyway, I got to the office and sat in the chair in front of the desk. Pro… Profess… Professor Sn... Snape came in and told me to write lines,” Neville said, feeling much bolder and still looking at the kind man in front of him, getting braver with each word. _If I tell the truth, maybe I won’t go to Azkaban,_ he thought frantically. The last two days had been a nightmare.

“I st…started to write the lines, but I was so na…nervous that I spilled the ink all over the desk,” the young man continued, his hands were shaking and sweat was pouring off his forehead. “Sn… Snape turned and started yelling at me. When he threatened to turn me into ingredients I fr…fre…freaked and pulled my g… gun. My hands were shaking so hard the g…gun went off and missed him by about a foot. I got more scared and dropped it. The noise was so loud and I was terrified. Sn…Snape kept saying he would see me expelled for trying to kill a professor. I ran. I ran all the way back to the common room. I didn’t even stop when people called my name. I only went down to the Hall when I was told I had to, because he was dead. I swear he was alive when I left. Really, you have to believe me,” he rambled out as quickly as he could, and started to hyperventilate again.

“Calm down, Neville, easy does it. Atta boy, deep breaths, you can do it,” Gibbs said, talking him down for fear he might faint again. When the boy was calmer he asked, “Did you actually pull the trigger?”

“Ummm, I don’t think so. I mean, the gun was shaking so hard it’s hard to tell.” Neville scrunched up his face trying to remember.

“Okay, can you give me the memory of the gun…?” Gibbs started, only to be interrupted by the lawyer.

“You will need Madam Longbottom's permission to do that,” Mr. Radcliff stated, glad to finally have something to say. “She is his guardian.”

So Gibbs turned to the woman in question and raised an eyebrow. “It might get your grandson off a murder charge. There’s no law on owning a gun in the wizarding world. As long as what he says is true, he could be out of here by tomorrow, though he wouldn’t be able to leave the country until the case is solved,” he informed her.

Augusta’s lips thinned so much they almost disappeared. She glared at her grandson only thinking that he would never be as great a wizard as his father —using a muggle weapon indeed. Nevertheless, if it would clear the Longbottom name she would have to give her permission. So she gave a tight nod of consent and sat back once again hoping she could go home soon.

Jen took a vial out of her briefcase and handed it to Gibbs. Gibbs placed his wand on Neville’s forehead and told him to think about the memory from the time he entered the room to the time he got to his dorm. When Neville nodded that he was doing that, the Special Agent pulled the memory out and put it in the vial.

“Okay, I have a few more questions and then we are done for the day. Did you clean the gun after your uncle gave it to you?”

“No, sir. He told me it was already clean.”

“Can you tell me where your uncle lives?”

Augusta gave the address of her squib brother and then stood and announced that that was all the questions they were going to answer today. And with one more glare at her grandson, she nodded to her lawyer and left. Neville was taken back to his room, which was separate from the holding cells. And Jen and Gibbs made their way back to the bullpen.

“Jen,” DiNozzo said as they entered, “you got another owl from the Minister, probably about Malfoy. Abby’s report on the prints came back and his aren’t on the gun. Since we’ve already held him for this long, we’re going to have to let him go. Seems his only crime is being an asshole and we can’t arrest him for that.” He shrugged his shoulder and handed her the message.

Jen’s face fell as she took the parchment. She was so hoping to question that stuck-up bigot. She turned to Gibbs and could see he was just as disappointed. When he gave a nod of his head, she turned back to Tony and said, “Let him go with our apologies. Don’t worry about him stating he’s going to sue or anything. We were within our rights. Let the others, whose prints weren’t on the gun, go as well. Same thing, apologize and ignore their rants.” And she went back to her office to complete her reports.

“DiNozzo, whose prints were on the gun?” Gibbs asked as he made his way to his desk and unlocked his computer.

“Well, the Trelawney woman’s, the Flint boy’s, Neville’s and one that is as of yet unidentified,” the second in command answered, looking over the report.

“Okay, we’ll start with the Flint kid. Get his parents and lawyer here and we can get him out of the way. Then ask Trelawney if she has a lawyer or do we need to get one for her.”

“You got it, Boss,” Tony said, getting ready to leave once again, only to be stopped by Gibbs.

“Did you get anything on the Longbottoms?”

“There’s no history of injury or abuse. The people I talked to at the Ministry just say that she is a piece of work and has always been hard on the boy. Maybe he’s just that way normally. Well, it might be from when he was a baby. He was in the room when is parents were tortured, so it could be trauma,” Tony suggested, noting that Gibbs wasn’t happy that he couldn’t get the kid away from the grandmother. “You want me to talk to the kid?”

“You’re good with kids?” asked a shocked Kate. All she really knew about Tony is he was a womanizer and a movie buff.

“I’ll have you know, I am great with kids,” he told her and then turned back to Gibbs. “I might be able to give him some hope. Ya know, tell him some stories about kids that were scared when they were younger and grew up to be policemen or Aurors.” He shrugged his shoulders, it was a thought and it might help. 

“Yeah, do that after you talk to Trelawney.”

“You got it, Boss.” And Tony left.

“Todd, what do you have on the husband?”

“Kenny Higglebottom, twenty-nine,” Kate stated, looking at the computer screen, “works as a grounds person at the local libraries in London. Married Trelawney when he was eighteen and like I said they were only married for three months. I called him on the phone and questioned him about firearms. He told me he knew how to shoot and taught his wife, hoping it would make her less paranoid. It didn’t. He said he divorced her when she refused to take his last name — he got tired of fighting with her about it. That and her paranoia got to the point that she was convinced that he was out to kill her. He hasn’t seen her since the divorce. I don’t think he even knew he was married to a witch,” she shrugged. It wouldn’t be the first time that happened.

“What do we have on the gun?”

“The Ruger P-Series is a line of center fire semi-automatic pistols made by Sturm, Ruger & Company produced from 1985 and still is. The P-Series pistols were designed for military, police, civilian and recreational use. The designs are largely based on the Browning action found in the M1911 pistol, but with minor variations, generally related to the safety mechanism and the barrel-cam block interface,” she read off the computer report. “The P85 was developed in 1985, but was not available until 1987. It was only available with a DA/SA trigger, decocker, and a manual safety. The model P85 pistols were recalled for a safety issue that resulted in an accidental discharge. If the firing pin broke in front of the firing pin block, applying the safety, which dropped the hammer, could transfer enough energy to the broken firing pin to cause a discharge. This one was never sent back for the free repair,” she finished and turned to her boss.

“Contact the uncle,” Gibbs said, handing her the address, “find out where he got the gun. It’s too new to have been used in the last war. See if he’s military, he should be in the database if he is or was.”

“Yes, sir,” she said, taking the paper and turning to the computer once again.

Gibbs rubbed his hand down his face in frustration. He was ecstatic that the kid didn’t do it and they were only down to three suspects. He was sure the Flint kid was just an innocent bystander, in this at least. But he was tired and knew he couldn’t go home yet, not until he questioned the minor first. The poor kid was in lockup, albeit separate from the adults, and needed to be interrogated soon. Maybe after that he’d get some sleep. He missed having a night crew; at least they got good overtime.


	4. Who Done It

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thanks to my betas, alix33 and darrelldeam, for looking this over. Any mistakes are of course my own.

It was late at night when Gibbs finally got to the interrogation room. Jen was with him. The kid, Flint, was sitting with his father. They had forgone a lawyer for now. He didn’t think they’d need one anyway.

“Marcus, can I call you Marcus?” The young man nodded his consent. “Sorry it’s so late, but if we get this done now, then maybe you can get out of here. Marcus, I need you to tell me what happened. The only reason you are still here is your prints were on the gun and we need to understand why,” Gibbs explained as he took his seat across from the two men.  

“Well, I had a late detention with Professor Snape. He always makes us Slytherins do ours late so the other Houses don’t know. I came into the office at 6:30, it was dark and smelled really bad,” Marcus wrinkled his nose at that. “I saw the Professor laying on the floor and went to wake him, thinking someone stunned him. That’s when I saw the blood and brains and knew he was dead. So I went to the Floo and hoped I could call out. I knew if I went to the Headmaster he would keep it in-house, so to speak. So I was really glad when my call went through.” He hated the favoritism the Headmaster showed and didn’t think the man would do anything to find out who the killer was, or if he did, he would sweep it under the carpet as he always did.

“You called the DMLE and what time did they come through?” Gibbs inquired, writing all of the info down. He would hand over the information on the Headmaster to Amelia, who was trying to build a case against the man.

“They came through about five minutes later. It was while I was waiting I saw the… gun?” —at Gibb’s nod he continued— “on the floor and picked it up thinking it might be important. That was about the time the Headmaster came in. He told me to go back to my common room and forget what I saw.  So I put the gun down and I headed out the door. Right when I was about to leave the room, I heard the Floo and Madam Bones started to yell at the Headmaster to drop his wand. Since my back was turned I don’t know what he was doing. I turned around and Madam Bones had her wand pointed to the old man’s head. She told me to stay, so I went back in and waited.” Flint shrugged. He knew he hadn’t done anything wrong.

“What happened after that?”

“Well, she asked me what happened and I told her the same as I told you. She sent me back to the common room and asked me to keep quiet for now. I didn’t tell anyone what happened. I just started my homework and when we got the orders to go to the Great Hall. I did,” Flint said with as much apathy as he could muster, not wanting to let them know just how shook-up he had been about seeing a dead body. Slytherins were stronger than that.

“Do you have any idea how the gun got back into Longbottom’s trunk?” that was a mystery that hadn’t been solved yet.

“No, sir, it was on the floor when I left. Madam Bones didn’t seem to think it was important, so I shrugged it off.”

“Okay, for now you’re free to go,” Gibbs told him then turned to his father. “I need to stress that he stays in the country. Maybe, it would be best if he went back to school, that way I know where to find him if I have more questions.”

“Yes, that would be best,” the senior Flint agreed, just glad to get out of this strange building. He took his son’s arm and guided him out the door.

“Well that’s one down and two more to go. I’ll deal with Trelawney later. She needs another day to get detoxed,” Gibbs said and Jen nodded her agreement. And the two parted ways and went home to sleep, the rest of the crew already was.

Later that morning a refreshed Gibbs went to visit Abby. “Hey, Abs, I need to know if there were any charms on the gun. Somehow it went from the floor of the Potion Master’s office to the Longbottom kid’s trunk,” he said, after giving his favorite lab tech her Caf-Pow.

“That’s weird, maybe there’s a time delay homing charm on it. You know how kids are always losing things,” she replied, quirking her head to the side. She put on her gloves and took the gun out of the evidence bag and took it to the magic room. After waving her wand over it a few times she turned to Gibbs with a smile, she loved it when she was right. “Yup, there’s a charm that returns it to its box when it is not in the boy’s possession for more than an hour. I don’t know who cast the charm. It couldn’t be the uncle, he’s a squib. That doesn’t mean he doesn’t have wizarding friends though.”

“Well, that’s one mystery solved. I’ll ask Neville about it later. Thanks, Abs,” he said and nodded his good-bye and left for the office. DiNozzo and Todd were already busy at their computers. “What more do we have on the victim?” he asked, putting his coffee on the corner of his desk out of habit.

“Oh, this Snape guy was a real piece of work. Seems right before he was going to be sentenced to Azkaban for… get this, being a Death Eater, our favorite Headmaster stood up for him and claimed he was a spy for the Light,” Tony said, after putting up a projection showing a picture of Snape at trial. “Those in charge of the trial simply took his word and let Snape walk.” He shook his head at the injustice.

“Yeah, we searched his office and quarters and found a journal. This guy wrote down everything. Seems he took great pleasure in making kids afraid of him. Kinda negates the whole good guy theory. That and it took us hours just to get through the security charms,” Kate said, picking up a folder with their findings.

“He also had a lot of borderline Dark objects in his possession,” Tony finished off, handing a list of what they found to Gibbs.

“Did he write anything that would help us find out who killed him?” Gibbs asked as he grabbed his coffee. He already knew the deceased was a Death Eater, but it was good to have it on the report. “Also get that report to Amelia, if this guy had Dark stuff in the castle, the Headmaster had to know about it. She needs to know what was found.”

“You got it, Boss,” Tony said, picking up a mirror to make sure Bones was in her office.

“Well, there were some mentions of a love affair and the last couple of entries said he dreaded that the Dark Lord was near and he feared for his life. It also said he was keeping an eye on that professor that did a runner, ummm, Quirinus Quirrell,” Kate said, reading her report. “There were notes on how much he hated the Headmaster for keeping him in the castle. He also was complaining about how they were protecting that stone we found. Seems it was all some elaborate test for some poor kid, Harry Potter, who our victim despised with a passion, something about having had to have dealt with bullying from the kid’s father when they were in school. This guy was a real asshole, Boss.” She put the folder down and turned her attention to Gibbs. “There was also something about an oath to keep the kid alive.”

“What do we know about Quirrell?”

“Well, he is kind of a mystery. Professor Quirinus Quirrell born September 26, 1957, attended Hogwarts and in 1968 was sorted into Ravenclaw. We know he taught Muggle Studies two years ago. He went on vacation to ‘get more experience’ and came back to teach the Defense Against the Dark Arts. Everyone we talked to said he wasn’t the same. He used to be confident and really liked his job, but when he came back he was nervous and jumpy. He gave a story that he had been attacked by vampires,” Tony read, having finished his call to Amelia. “We don’t know where he took his little walkabout, we only know he didn’t wear that turban when he left and was a changed man when he came back.”

“Find out where he went and see if we can get some prints out of his office. If he was the Muggle Studies teacher, he’d know what a gun was and how to use it. He might be our unidentified man,” Gibbs ordered.

“You got it, Boss,” Tony said, getting his jacket and leaving the building to go first to the DMLE to drop off the report then to Hogwarts.

“Kate, did you get anything on the uncle yet?”

“Yeah, his prints are in the system. They’re not the ones on the gun. I called him and talked to him about how Neville wound up with a gun. His story matches Neville’s. The family thought the kid was a squib and would send him to the uncles for most of the year to learn how to live with non-magicals. When he finally did accidental magic, they stopped sending him. The uncle said he suspected abuse, but since the kid wasn’t talking and there were no marks he couldn’t do anything, which is why he taught Neville how to use a gun. He retired about five years after the war, but kept in contact with his buddies, or mates as he calls them, that’s where he got the gun. One of his buddies knew he was going to give it to his nephew and scrounged it up for him.”

“Call him back and ask him about the charm on the gun,” Gibbs said, handing her the report Abby had given him on the charm.

“Yes, sir.” And she turned to the phone to make the call.

Gibbs sat at his computer and thought about what to do next. The Trelawney woman was still detoxing and questioning her would be next to useless. He didn’t have anyone else to question at the moment. So he brought up the reports and read through them for now.

A few hours later Todd broke the silence. “Gibbs, I found something,” she said excitedly.

“What have you got?” Gibbs asked, looking up from Snape’s journal. This guy was a bastard that was for sure. He found that the reason he was never mellow from the potions was because he was too guilty over the death of Lily Potter, the love of his life. That and he had orders from the Headmaster to treat the Gryffindors, especially Harry Potter, with malice. It was supposed to be a cover for his spying so that if the Dark Bastard came back he could claim his was depleting the Aurors of men. Gibbs felt it was too bad that Dumbledore wasn’t attached to this crime; he would love to get a piece of that guy, but his reports to Amelia would have to suffice.

“That Quirrell guy is in the system. His prints are a match. Seems he was arrested by non-magicals in Albania last year. He came out of the forest and was spouting off on how he was possessed. They put him in jail for the night and shipped him off to a mental hospital. He escaped before he got there though, killed two of his guards. Then he ducked into the wizarding world and dropped off their radar,” she read, proud of herself for finding this.

“Good work, Kate. Send that to Amelia and have her start a manhunt. He’s still wanted for questioning in this case, but if he is killing non-magicals then she needs to know he is dangerous. Tell her the reason why he was picked up. That might be important.”

“Yes, sir,” she said and picked up the mirror to put through the call.

Tony walked in smiling. “I just got back from Hogwarts and that Quirrell guy went to Albania. Oh, and Abby says the prints are a match,” he said smugly.

“A little late, DiNozzo, Kate already found his prints in the system,” Gibbs smirked as that smug look dropped from his second in commands face.

“Oh,” Tony said as he deflated. “Good work, Probie.” And he returned to his desk and started his report. Kate looked up from her mirror, beamed at him and gave him a quick thumbs up before returning to her call.

After Kate disconnected Gibbs asked her, “Did you get a hold of the uncle?”

“Yeah, I asked him about the charm. Seems our youngest suspect has a habit of losing things, so the uncle had one of his wizard friends put the charm on. Said he didn’t feel right not having it on there. Once the gun was back in the box, it was supposed to lock so no other kid but Neville could open it,” she reported.

“Good work. I need to talk to the kid and let him know that we believe him. I hate to send him home though, but we can’t keep him here. Maybe I can get him to talk about his home life. Did he say anything to you, DiNozzo?”

“No, Boss, he just listened to me tell my stories. He seemed to soak them up. He was in a better mood when I left. I gave him some non-fictional books to read,” Tony said with a shrug. He had been hoping the kid would tell them something.

“Kate, call Amelia and see if she can come in for an interview. DiNozzo, call the grandmother back in and have her bring her lawyer,” Gibbs ordered, grabbing up the phone to have Neville prepared for another meeting. After his call he went to talk to Jen, he really wanted to help this kid, but he couldn’t step on any toes doing it. Jen knew more laws than he did.

Gibbs knocked on her door and entered without waiting. “Jen, I’m going to see if the Longbottom boy wants help getting away from his family. What do I need to do?” he asked as he paced in front of the desk.

“That’s a tough one. You know his parents are in the long term ward at St. Mungo’s right?”

“Yeah, it’s in the report.”

“His only other relatives, magical, are his grandmother and uncle. There is no way they’d let him go to a squib and magical Britain doesn’t really have a Child Protection Department.”

“Damn! So what can we do?” Gibbs said, running his hand through his hair and sitting down in one of the chairs.

“Well, as you know most of the families in this place are inbred, so there are a few cousins running around. The problem is that he is also related to families like the Malfoys and the Blacks. So if we try and take him away they might try and get custody and I don’t have to tell you how messed up that would be. That quote ‘the devil you know’ can be true.”

“Are they related to the Bones by any chance?” Maybe Amelia could take him in.

“Let me check,” Jen answered and pulled an old worn book off the shelf behind her chair. She thumbed through it and found the page she was looking for. “If he is it is too distant,” she said after a minute. “However, she can take him in as she is the Head of the DMLE, which is the closest thing they have to a CPS. It is in the laws that if she feels he is in danger, and with all this on him he might be, because he brought shame to the family name, she can take him in.”

“I’ll ask her when she gets here. Thanks, Jen,” Gibbs said as he got up and left the office and returned to his desk to wait for all parties to show.

Amelia showed up ten minutes later. “Thanks for coming, Amelia, why don’t we step into my office,” Gibbs suggested, standing and heading for the elevator.

Madam Bones followed a confused look on her face. They got in and went down two floors when Gibbs stopped the elevator.

“I have a favor to ask and this is the only way not to be heard,” he explained and when she nodded her understanding he continued. “I want to get the Longbottom kid away from his grandmother. I don’t trust that she or her brother will take care of him. They might go as far as to hurt him, badly. The problem is he hasn’t said anything about being abused, it’s only a gut feeling on my part.”

“So, if it turns out that he is abused, you want me to take him in? I don’t know, Jethro, I have Susan to think of. Do you really think he is in danger? I won’t leave him to Augusta if you truly believe that. But, we are going to have to get him to confess before I can do anything,” Amelia replied, quickly thinking over the laws and everything she knew about the young man. As far as she knew Neville was a good kid, Susan said he was shy and just kept to himself mostly. It was quite a shock to everyone that he was involved in this case at all. Not a shock that he would use a Muggle weapon; just that he was such an unassuming figure.

“I’m going to do my best to get him to do just that. My gut feelings are hardly ever wrong. We’re waiting on the grandmother and lawyer now. I asked Jen and she said you are the only one besides the Malfoys and the Blacks that can do this,” Gibbs explained, shooting her earnest looks.

“Alright, Neville is a good boy, as far as I know, and if I can help I will.” She nodded and Gibbs restarted the elevator and went back to the bull pen.

While they waited Gibbs had a question for the Head of the DMLE, “Amelia, who was the Animagus that was in the Gryffindor dorm?”

“You really opened a bottle of flubberworms with that one. It turns out he’s a man thought dead and a hero. He was supposed to have been killed by Sirius Black, but when we questioned him we found out that the whole thing was staged. An innocent man has been in prison for almost ten years,” Bones answered with a mixed look of sympathy and frustration. “Why do you ask?”

“He was in the same room with the gun, so I figured I should find out who he is. He might be related to the case,” Gibbs explained with a shrug.

Amelia shook her head. “No, we questioned him on that and he doesn’t know anything,” she said with relief. She was glad that there was no more to be added to the Pettigrew case, it was bad enough as it is.

Gibbs nodded his thanks, also glad they didn’t have to add another person to his case and went back to his reports. Five minutes later, he got a call that all parties were waiting for him in the interrogation room. Everyone joined him, wanting to see if Gibbs could help the kid. Even Jen came along to watch via the two way mirror, a file of paperwork in her arms, just in case.

Gibbs and Bones entered the room and took their seats across from Neville, his grandmother and Mr. Radcliff. “Neville, we believe you, but the problem is it’s your gun that killed the professor. So we have to keep you here, or send you home, until we find out who actually killed the man. Do you understand?” Gibbs said in a soft voice and with gentle eyes.

“Yes, sir,” Neville agreed as he nodded in understanding. “Can I stay here?” he asked, shooting a nervous look at his grandmother.

“You most certainly will not,” Augusta snapped. “You have brought enough shame on this family. Making us think you were a squib and then using a Muggle weapon like one. You will come home and take your punishment like a man.” She stood and towered over her quivering grandson, who turned his pleading eyes to the detective.

“Augusta Longbottom,” yelled Amelia, standing so fast her chair flew out behind her, “you sit down this instant! What has gotten into you, woman? Can’t you see your scaring your own grandchild, the last of your blood?”

“He is a disgrace to the family name, taking so long to do magic and using a gun for protection. Why, if we hadn’t forced the magic out of him, we would have never known he had any at all,” the old woman said spitefully.

“You,” Gibbs said, pointing at Augusta, “sit down and shut up.” The elder woman pursed her lips and complied. Amelia grabbed her chair up and dropped into it. “Neville, tell me about the time you did your first accidental magic,” he ordered softly, turning his attention to the youngest in the room.

“My… my Uncle Algie” he started to stutter and then firmed his resolve, “kept trying to force the magic out of me, like Gran said. One time, when I was around five, he pushed me off the end of Blackpool pier —I nearly drowned. While over for tea, one time when I was eight, Uncle Algie hung me out of an upstairs window by my ankles and accidentally dropped me when he was offered a meringue by Aunt Enid. Instead of getting hurt, I bounced safely down the garden and out into the road. Gran was so happy she cried and Uncle Algie got me a toad. Uncle Albert was happy and sad, he was sad because I couldn’t go and see him anymore.” His eyes teared remembering the kind uncle who never said a bad thing to him. How he missed the man.

 Mr. Radcliff looked at Madam Longbottom in horror and then put his lawyer mask back on.

Amelia stood up and leaned over the table, getting right in Augusta’s face. “You are a disgrace to your son’s name. If you think for one minute that Frank would condone what you have done to his son, you are sadly mistaken. I knew Frank, he was one of my head Aurors, and he would hate you and never speak to you again. I hope that if he wakes up from his ailment that he shames you and kicks you and your despicable brother out of the family,” she hissed and then turned a kind face to the cowering boy. “Neville, you can stay here or you can come home with me,” she said softly, trying to calm down as to not scare the boy any more than he already was. She was delighted to see hope spring into his eyes.

Mr. Radcliff, as per his duty as a lawyer, stated, “You will need to get the proper paperwork for that. Plus, you will need more proof than the words of a child.”

“We have it recorded, straight out of her own mouth, that she and her brother continuously tried to force the magic out of him. It is my right as Head of the Department of Magical Law Enforcement to take any child out of a dangerous home. However, I am sure I can retrieve the memories and that will be proof enough for the Wizengamot,” Amelia countered as she sat back down, still glaring at the old woman across from her. She was thinking that she needed to get someone to collect the uncle as well.

“We’ll keep Neville here, for now. He’s in his own room and safe with a guard,” Gibbs offered, and then looked up as Jen came into the room carrying the paperwork that needed to be filled out. He nodded his thanks and took the papers from her and handed them to Amelia.

It took fifteen minutes, and having Augusta Longbottom silenced and restrained, to complete everything. Neville had already been taken back to his room by DiNozzo and Todd. Amelia took the grandmother away as she returned to her office to complete the process. Mr. Radcliff followed, though he didn’t look happy about it. He might just have to withdraw from the case.

The WCIS crew returned to the bullpen and started working on their case, feeling much more accomplished now that they got the kid away from his family. Now all they had to do is find out which of the two remaining suspects was the killer.

“Is Trelawney detoxed yet?” Gibbs asked, taking a drink of his fresh coffee.

“Yeah, Boss, the healers say she can be questioned,” Tony answered, going through the messages left on his desk, then added, “She’s a real nutcase though, doesn’t want a lawyer and claims everything was meant to pass, according to her inner eye. Do they even have laws here for the mentally unstable?”

“Sort of,” Jen answered, sitting on the edge of Tony’s desk and facing the rest of the group. “They have laws about the Imperius Curse and its influence, but everything else is shady. I might be able to claim her mentally unstable and get her locked up in St. Mungo’s, but she’s a half-blood so many of the laws are against her. It does help that Professor Snape was a half-blood as well. If he had been a pure-blood then a lawyer’s hands would have been tied. That and we don’t know she’s even guilty of anything except picking up a gun. We still haven’t found that Quirrell guy. And my money is on someone who does a runner,” she added with a raising of her hands, making a futile motion on the ridiculous laws this country had.

“Well, no time like the present. Let’s go ask her, I want this case closed and the sooner the better. If she is innocent then we go after Quirrell. If she’s not, then we leave Quirrell to Bones, unless she assigns him to us,” Gibbs said as he finished off his coffee and gestured for everyone to follow.

DiNozzo, Kate and Jen stayed behind the mirror, while Gibbs went into the interrogation room. Trelawney was sitting at the table in her wispy dress and shawl. You could tell she had had a rough few days. Her freshly washed hair was limp and lanky, you could make out the bags under her eyes, magnified by her huge glasses, making her look like a demented bug. She was slumped in her chair and seemed to be having a hard time keeping her eyes open.

“Good afternoon, Ms. Trelawney. Do you need a pepper-up?” Gibbs asked, taking the chair across from her and putting his ever present notepad on the table.

“They already gave me one, thank you,” the woman replied and then she looked at the detective and said, “You should not feel guilty, it wasn’t your fault.” Her inner eye going straight to his guilt over the death of his wife and child, one of the few times she was right.

“I have no idea what you are talking about” Gibbs said, waving aside the non-sequitur. “That aside, I need you to tell me how your prints got on the gun that killed Severus Snape. Know that everything you say is being recorded and can be held against you.”

She waved her hands in a vague manner, brushing aside his warning. “Ah, Severus, he was a bad man you understand? I tried to stay away from him, but the stars… oh, the stars… they kept telling me that he needed me. He would use me something awful…” she trailed off and gave a full body shudder. “I tried to stay away… but tea leaves and the crystal ball... So I would go to him and try to warn him that he was in danger. He never listened, you know? He always called me the vilest names. He did that, you know, called people names? I tried to warn him you see… I tried to warn everyone. May I have a glass of sherry?” Trelawney asked airily.

“No, until we know what happened that night, you have to stay sober. Tell me how your prints got on the gun,” Gibbs ordered firmly. He hated working with drunks.

“I was meditating and my inner eye saw dark hair and blood… oh so much blood… I was scared, you see. Severus warned me that the next time I tried to help him, he would do me harm. But fate will not be denied. It must be taken seriously. So I went to his office. He was there pacing around complaining about one of the students… talking about how he was going to expel the brat. I sat in one of the students’ chairs. There was a gun on the floor, so I picked it up. My ex-husband warned me about unattended guns. I waited to see if the man would calm down. Then he turned to me and saw me with a gun.” Her eyes got impossibly large, reflecting the fear she was reliving.

Her voice became even more eerie as she continued. “He started shouting at me. He kept asking if I was going to take a shot at him. I denied it, of course. I kept the gun on the desk in plain sight, but he was like a man possessed. He continued to shout and yell all sorts of accusations. Then he started to come towards me. I lifted the gun and told him to stay back. And then… oh Fate is a cruel mistress… a calm came over me. I saw purple… and felt so free… like I was flying. A voice in my head told me to shoot the cruel man. I looked at Severus’ face and he was scared. He kept his gaze over my shoulder, like there was someone there. I tried to turn my head, but that voice... the voice… oh, that sweet voice… kept telling me over and over to shoot poor dear Severus.” And she stopped talking, her eyes wide, looking off into the distance.

“Ms. Trelawney, I need you to tell me what happened next,” Gibbs practically whispered to the trance like woman.

“The voice, you see… I’ve always wanted to hear the voice… mother told me to listen to the voice in my head. I felt hands on mine. I fought it the best I could… but I’ve been waiting all my life to hear that voice. I pointed the gun at poor Severus, who seemed frozen in shock… the hands seemed to guide me. He was so, so scared… I wanted to drop the gun, you see, and save the poor man, but the voice… next thing I knew there was a loud bang and poor Severus was dead. I heard someone leave and figured it was the voice. I turned and only saw purple. I ran as fast as I could and went to my tower,” Trelawney finished her broken tale. Her eyes then came into focus and she asked, “Can I please have a sherry, my nerves, you understand?”

“I’ll see that someone takes you back to your room,” Gibbs said instead of answering. He did give her a glass of water and then left the room shaking his head.

“Well, that sounds like the Imperius to me, Boss,” Tony offered when Gibbs joined them.

“Yeah, it does, but it is so easy to fake. Unless we can get the memory or have her put under a truth potion I don’t know if it will hold in court.”

“Ah, but we are in Britain and they don’t require that, many Death Eaters got off on the same charges, granted they bought their way out; however, it is now on the books as a valid claim. So I can use it,” Jen said smugly.

“I still want to find this Quirrell and talk to him. But, if she is telling the truth and since his prints are the only ones left on the gun, he’s probably our guy,” Gibbs said heading to the elevator. “DiNozzo, get a healer in here and see if they can tell if she was held under the curse. Kate, call Amelia and let her know what we found. I’ll put in the call to Hogwarts that they need a new Divination professor, either way this one is getting locked up. St. Mungo’s or Azkaban, either one.”

“You got it, Boss,” came Tony’s standard reply.

“Yes, sir,” was Kate’s rejoinder.

They separated at the bullpen and did what was assigned to them. Gibbs hated talking to Dumbledore. The man tried to get his professor free, but was harshly reminded that he had no hold on the WCIS and what they say was law. He hated talking on the Floo just as much; he was too old to be kneeling.

The Aurors found Quirrell a few hours later, dead in Knockturn Alley. His wand showed many dark curses, including the Imperius. Ducky said he also showed signs of possession and that’s what killed him. This complicated the case even more, for if both were not under their own control then neither could be held responsible. It was Abby that finally cracked who possessed the DADA professor.

“What have you got for me, Abs?” Gibbs said as he walked into her lab a few days later, handing her a Caf-pow.

“Well, it took a while, but, I finally found out who, or what, was possessing your other dead guy. I had to talk to the wand maker, Ollivander, and let me tell you that man is creepy, but, he has a record of all magical signatures ever to be used in his shop, as required by the Ministry. And we got a hit on one Tom Riddle, also known as The Dark Lord Voldemort,” she said in an unnerving voice, wiggling her fingers in the air. Then she giggled and showed her boss the report. “Seems this guy’s not as dead as people think, since his signature is all over that Quirrell guy,” she added triumphantly.

“Damn!” Gibbs cursed. This was just what he didn’t need. “I’ve got to go talk to Jen. Thanks, Abs, as usual, you’re the best.” And he left the room and went to Jen’s office. He knocked and entered. “Jen, call Amelia, I want her to hear this.”

Jen picked up the mirror and put the call through. When Amelia appeared, Gibbs started without preamble. “Abby got a hit, it seems our mysterious possessor is none other than Tom Riddle, who you guys refer to as He-Who-Must-Not-Be-Named, or Voldemort,” he said as he slumped wearily in his chair. He then looked at Jen and asked, “Can we even try a wraith?”

“I don’t know. It’s never been done before. You are going to have a hard time selling this to the Ministry I can tell you that right now,” she answered and also slumped in her chair.

“Are you sure?” Amelia asked from the mirror, you could hear the unease in her voice. The war wasn’t forgotten to the people here.

“Abby is hardly ever wrong,” Gibbs said, defending his lab tech. “That and it was your wand-maker that confirmed it.”

A more determined voice answered. “Give me what she found and I’ll take it to the Unspeakables, until then get a trial for Trelawney and Quirrell and then sit on the rest of this case,” the Head of the DMLE ordered, glad this team only answered to her. She would do what she could behind the scenes to find out more. She knew as well that the Ministry would balk at any mention of You-Know-Who still being around wraith or not.

“I don’t like having unsolved cases on file,” Gibbs objected as he sat up more in his chair and looked directly in the mirror.

“This will be solved sooner or later, but, if what you told me is true then it is out of your hands. Sit on it. That is an order,” Amelia replied curtly.

“Yes, Ma’am” Gibbs answered angrily and he stormed out of the room.

In the end Neville went back to Hogwarts, feeling better and more confident. He never returned to the Longbottoms as they were declared unfit guardians. Amelia was granted custody. Dumbledore tried to gain control over the boy, but failed due to the happenings at his school. Neville’s parents weren’t cured until years after Augusta died. However, they were appalled at what she had done to their son and took great pleasure at booting Algie out of the family and bringing Albert back into it. Neville was an adult, but nevertheless happy that he had his parents back. They were thankful to the WCIS and Madam Bones for saving their child.

Peter Pettigrew was found guilty of being a Death Eater and sentenced to life in Azkaban. Sirius Black was freed and gained custody of his godson, Harry Potter, much to the dismay of Albus Dumbledore.

The School Board did a review and found Albus wanting and put him on a year’s probation. He was fired the next year when the Basilisk was released (a case quickly solved by the WCIS) and an outside Headmaster was hired in his place. When questioned about what happened in the school, it was revealed that Dumbledore was planning on taking over the Wizarding world as a backstage puppet master. He was relieved of all of his titles, but since he never actually committed a crime, he wasn’t incarcerated. He still had some political pull, but was thwarted by Sirius and the WCIS at almost every turn. There was much butting of heads, between those factions.

The WCIS continued training the British Aurors and gained a new probie, Timothy McGee, cousin to Auror McGee. He worked out well and was a good instructor to the trainees. Britain was now prepared if a war broke out. The WCIS formed a team of British detectives and now there was a night shift. They would stay in Britain until all their cases were solved, especially their first one.

Trelawney was found innocent of the murder, however, was remanded to St. Mungo’s long term ward for the remainder of her life. She gave one more true prophecy, when Peter Pettigrew escaped Azkaban and fled to his Lord.

Quirrell was also found innocent, due to being possessed. If he hadn’t been caught by the muggles in Albania then he might have been found guilty, but it was that report that confirmed it was not a consensual possession.

When Voldemort returned and war finally broke out, the Wizengamot declared Tom Riddle wanted for the murder of one Potions Master Severus Tobias Snape, after it was confirmed that the man was still alive. The WCIS fought hard and helped capture and interrogate many of the Death Eaters. They never caught Riddle; the man was just too good escaping. They always found where he was holing up, but he seemed to disappear the moment they’d get there.

The case was open until Voldemort was killed by Harry Potter in 1997, but he was found guilty posthumously.

Case Closed.


End file.
